June 28, 2006	Wednesday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 1, 1427

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SIALKOT, June 27: District officials of labour, social security and buildings departments could not check repair work on buildings of the factories, which were cracked owing to the Oct 8 earthquake.

Requesting anonymity, some official sources told this correspondent that the departments had started a survey for assessing the damage, but they had to shelve it following pressure of influential exporters and industrialists.

According to a survey conducted by Sialkot-based journalists, scores of labourers are working in cracked and damaged buildings of numerous factories.

Several earthquake-terrified labourers told the press here on Monday that they had been forced to work in these cracked buildings under great risk, as owners had not made arrangements for repairing their units. They criticised the respective departments for turning a blind eye to this effect.

A group of factory workers said: “We had refused to work in the risky environment, but the owners forced us to do work in the cracked buildings by threatening us with termination.”

The workers said they had brought the matter into the notice of Sialkot-based Punjab Industries Minister Muhammad Ajmal Cheema and Labour Minister Syed Akhtar Husain Rizvi, but to no avail.

They have urged the federal, provincial and district governments to order immediate repair and reconstruction of the damaged buildings.