Industrial relations : Punjab Assembly passes labour bill

Legislation will govern formation of trade unions, relations between industries and their workers.

LAHORE: The Punjab Assembly has passed new legislation that will govern the formation of trade unions, relations between industries and their workers, and the process for the settlement of labour disputes.

The Punjab Industrial Relations Bill 2010 was introduced in the assembly on Wednesday afternoon and passed via a voice vote after a clause-by-clause reading. Two small amendments made by opposition members were included in the bill.

The opposition asked that the bill not be introduced for another two weeks so it could be more widely circulated and considered, but the treasury benches rejected the request. “Circulating the bill and getting the input of stakeholders will prevent the kind of protests we are seeing outside right now,” said Mohsin Leghari of the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, referring to an angry demonstration by students on The Mall.

Law Minister Rana Sanaullah said the bill had already spent six months in the Standing Committee on Labour and Human Resources, during which time it had been extensively vetted in consultation with all stakeholders. Labour relations and trade unions were previously regulated under the Punjab Industrial Relations Ordinance 2010. That ordinance now stands repealed.

The law minister also introduced the Qarshi University Muridke Bill 2010 in the assembly on Wednesday. The bill   which would provide for the establishment of a private university with faculties in eastern medicine, IT and mathematics, social and management sciences, and environmental sciences – was referred to the Standing Committee on Education.

Blasphemy resolution

Pervez Rafique, a Pakistan Peoples Party MPA on a seat reserved for minorities, accused Sanaullah of “threatening” him in a meeting in the speaker’s chamber. Rafique said that he had intended to introduce a resolution in the assembly to condemn the blasphemy laws. “The law minister threatened me, saying he would never allow such a resolution,” Rafique said. He said the laws were exploited to target members of the Christian community.

Sanaullah said that Rafique had misunderstood him. He said that Ali Noor Niazi, MPA of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, had also wanted to introduce a blasphemy resolution, but the minister had convinced him not to.

He said he had told Rafique the same thing: that he could speak about it in an individual capacity but should not involve the assembly in the “sensitive issue”. He added that he respected all minorities.

The speaker told Rafique to bring him the resolution, and assured him he would allow it if it was in order.

Questions of sports

Earlier in the day, Sports Minister Dr Tanveerul Islam came under criticism from MPAs and the speaker for not providing satisfactory answers to members’ questions. A series of members rose to complain that the answers given were incomplete, untruthful, or ignored the question. Several questions had to be put off till Thursday.

For example, one member said the figures provided by the minister in answer to a question about the number of sports clubs in Multan were “completely made up”. The minister insisted that the clubs were officially registered with the Punjab Olympic Association. The speaker formed a committee to meet and verify the figures and inform the house the next day.

Khawaja Islam of the PML-Nawaz complained that no answer had been supplied to his question about spending on sports in Faisalabad in the last two years. The minister said he had already suspended one official for the oversight.

Several other questions were not fully answered, and the speaker eventually curtailed question time on the subject after the law minister said he and the sports minister would sit with MPAs on Thursday and answer all their questions.

Also on Wednesday, MPAs from Sargodha staged a token walkout of the assembly in a protest for the establishment of a separate High Court bench in the south central Punjab district.

The speaker adjourned the session indefinitely.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2010.