KARACHI, Jan 21: Trade unions have demanded that all those workers of Pearl Continental Hotel who are being kept in “illegal detention” at a CIA centre be released immediately.

At a press conference at Karachi Press Club on Monday, trade union leaders also urged the authorities to institute an independent inquiry, led by a senior member of the judiciary, into the hotel’s fire incident.

“We suspect that the Jan 6 fire incident had been planned by the hotel management itself to get double benefit, as on the one hand the management, through police, is victimizing the union officials and, on the other, it would get a huge amount from the insurance claim,” they alleged.

They said after the fire incident 11 union officials and members were picked up by the CIA, though the FIR had been registered against unknown persons.

They said many workers, including Ghulam Mahboob (general secretary), Bashir Husain (joint secretary), Mohammed Ishaque (vice president), Aurangzeb (vice chairman), Mohammed Nawaz (social secretary) and Chetandas (member), were still in custody.

They said the union president, Mohammed Nasir, who had been recovered from the CIA centre by the Sindh Ombudsman’s team, had been released. Mr Nasir, who was present at the press conference, said when he went to resume duty on Monday, Jan 21, he said he found that he had been charge-sheeted for remaining absent from Jan 7 to 19 — the time that he had been in CIA custody — and had been suspended.

They also criticized the management for extending duty hours, from eight- hour shift to 12-hour shift, and termed it against labour laws. They demanded restoration of the eight-hour shift.

Liaquat Sahi of the National Trade Unions Alliance, Malak Sher Ahmad of the Pearl Continental Hotel Trade Unions Federation, Qamarul Hasan of the International Union of Food, and others also spoke at the press conference.