KARACHI, Aug 24: City industrialists have given a lukewarm response to the Civil Defence's Industrial Safety Management Training (ISMT) initiative to meet requirement of ISO- 18000 as required under WTO for safety and security management.
They think that the fee of Rs30,000 for the ISMT is too high. Industrialists said that they are much better aware of the safety requirements and that every factory has an in-built system of safety management in their units.
The Civil Defence Director General, Air Marshal (Retd) Sarfaraz Arshad Toor wanted this course to commence from Karachi but so far there has been no response from industrialists of Karachi, said a statement of the Site Association of Industry.
The Civil Defence Director General along with other officials visited the industrialists members of the Site Association and Korangi Association of Trade Industry (KATI) on Monday to convince them that "ISMT is a must to comply with the requirements of ISO-18000 as required under WTO without which, it would not be possible to make exports from Pakistan."
He said specialised courses have been designed to meet the requirements of ISO-18000 the very purpose of which is to create industrial safety culture in Pakistan. In response to a question, DG Civil Defence said ISMT is not compulsory by law but in view of its importance and to meet the required standards of ISO-18000, it is for the industrialists to decide whether they would like to have their employees trained or not?
Industrialists in Site area had received letters from the Director General of Civil Defence Islamabad requiring SITE industries to nominate their managers for a safety management course costing Rs30,000 per person.
Site Association of Industries, in a statement, said that industrialists in the area questioned whether Civil Defence was legally authorized, under the Act, to charge from industries for training courses.
However, civil defence gives contract to a private party to organize these expensive courses through a directive issued by Federal Interior Minister, Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, and that there has been no amendment in the law by the Parliament as such.
The association said Karachi's industries were going through a rough patch and this was evident from the high cost of production of goods. In fact the industries in Karachi were victims of discrimination.
Then the industries are infested with innumerable inspecting agencies. The industrialists in the meeting showed their frustration at the prevailing conditions and also pointedly referred to the law and order situation, which made their life and property insecure.
The industrialists made it clear that they could not add any more to the already high cost that exists and, as such, they would not participate in the course envisaged by the DG, Civil Defence.
SITE industrialists, in the meeting, also advised the DG Civil Defence to initiate the courses from Lahore and Faisalabad and then move to other cities since mammoth industrialization is being done in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, etc.
Air Marshall Toor and Capt Amjad Faizi assured the industrialists that the Civil Defence officers would not visit their factories and that corruption would be disallowed in the organization.
They said that their vision is to promote a safety culture in Pakistani industries and that they aim to have qualified fire fighters in the country soon.
They stated that the country must be ready for ISO-18000 and for that reason they have devised these courses that would have experts from India too. KATI chairman, Mian Zahid Hussain said in Pakistan, there is a large number of SMEs which employ only skeleton staff.
Therefore, they can neither spare any of their employees for such training nor can they pay the exorbitant course fee of Rs30,000 per person which is being demanded for imparting ISMT. He suggested that course should be designed keeping in view the problems and financial standing of the SMEs.
He also suggested that it would be better to provide training to the employees of SMEs in their establishments so that they are not financially overburdened. However, he agreed that multinational companies could send their employees for the training to Civil Defence Institutes but emphasised that to persuade them, awareness programmes be designed.
At this occasion, Captain Amjad Faizi gave a detailed presentation on ISMT saying that the Civil Defence intends to train the maximum number of safety managers and safety trainers who would help create safety culture at the national level.
He said the purpose of the training is to safeguard the human lives in case of industrial accidents. Training is given to safety managers for increasing productivity by changing their attitude and keeping their working environment clean so that their health is not affected by industrial hazards.
He said industrial safety revolves around professional identification of hazards and added that human factors cause 80 per cent of accidents. Safety managers ensure corporate safety performance, save money, and co-ordinate with government agencies.
