Sindh CM had barred Labour Minister from inspection of factories.

Sharmila Farooqui has said that Sindh CM had barred Labour Minister from inspection of factories.

While talking to Dunya News, she claimed that Sindh chief minister had stopped the labour minister from inspection of factories. She said that round about 10,000 factories are being run in the metropolis but there is no check and balance on them. That is why such horrible tragedies have become hallmark of the day. She said that if the government wants to keep law and order and assures security of lives and property of the workers, it should implement rules and regulations in true spirit. Earlier, Sindh Labour Minister Ameer Nawaz has claimed that Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah had stopped him from inspecting and taking action against factories violating labour rules in the province. Ameer Nawab, who has just resigned from his post, gave his remarks after the fire in Karachi factory took hundreds of lives. Apparently, Sindh followed footsteps of Punjab, which too banned labour inspections, back in 2003, following which the Sindh CM did the same. While speaking to the media, the former provincial minister said that he was directed to drop the cases against factory owners. He said they started action after receiving number of complains but failed to bring the culprits before the justice. He stated, “We tried to persuade the CM that the cases have been referred to court, and cannot be withdrawn. But the CM expressed his anger over the operation. Since then we stopped the inspections. How can we continue with them when the chief executive of a province asks us to stop an inquiry and withdraw the cases?” He further said that factories were supposed to be inspected once a year before Musharraf came to power. During chief minister Arbab Ghulam Rahim’s time under the Musharraf set-up, the rule was that before an inspection, labour officials had to serve an employer one month’s notice about when they would be coming. He added, “This refutes the actual purpose of an inspection. I had asked CM Qaim Ali Shah to revisit the cabinet’s decision but nothing happened”. The death toll of the fire in a Karachi garment factory reached 298 with several dozen workers still unaccounted for and presumably dead in the basement that could not be penetrated by recovery teams till the filing of this report. The worst disaster of the country has once again raised fresh concerns about safety at workplaces and also captured the attention of the president, the Sindh High Court and other government officials and departments as well as the local and international media.