ISLAMABAD: Only 16 of the 82 stone-grinding factories in six districts of Punjab are operating under valid licences, whereas 66 are functioning without any government registration or check and are responsible for the emergence of severe occupational diseases, including silicosis that cripples lungs.

This information was presented before a three-judge Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk that had taken up an application by human rights activists Usama Khawar and Yahya Farid. Barrister Raheel Kamran Sheikh represented the petitioners.

The applicants had deplored that the employers had failed to provide safe working conditions to workers and by condoning the environmental and occupational health hazards posed by stone-crushing factories the respondents had acted in contravention of the fundamental rights.

They had requested the court to take suo motu cognizance of the death of 18 stone-crushing labourers in Gujranwala because of the incurable disease of silicosis.

At the last hearing on Dec 3, the court had asked the Punjab Secretary for Local Government and Community Development, Khalid Masood Chaudhry, to submit a comprehensive report about the number of stone-crushing units set up in the province and how many of them were operating under licence.

The department asked all the district coordination officers to provide the details but only 16 of the 36 districts responded. The factories are registered under the Factories Act of 1934.

The report said that 11 of the 12 such factories in Mianwali and all six in Gujrat were operating without valid licences.

Attock has 30 stone-grinding factories of which 19 are working without licences, while 17 of the 21 units in Jhelum and all eight in Gujranwala lack permits.

The report conceded that under the Punjab Local Government Ordinance of 2001, burning or grinding of lime or metal stone or storing of lime for sale fell among dangerous trades. No person may carry on a dangerous or offensive trade except in conformity with the conditions of licence granted by the tehsil or town municipal administration concerned.

According to the report, the provincial department will provide details of the remaining districts as well as action taken against the un-licensed units in a fortnight. There are 144 TMAs in the province.

The provincial department of labour and human resource informed the court that a committee constituted by Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has framed the Punjab Hazardous Occupations (Silicon) Rules in furtherance of the Factories Act. After receipt of comments from the relevant departments, the rules will be discussed with all the stakeholders.

The Balochistan Environmental Protection Agency said in its report that the province had 319 registered factories of which 106 had no-objection certificates. The certificates of four plants had been cancelled for not complying with the conditions.

The report said no case of silicosis had been reported in Balochistan but the inspecting staff had been asked to report to the health department any relevant symptoms.

It said Rs9.8 million had been paid by the province last year as compensation for various diseases.

The court asked the provinces to develop a mechanism to record the patients of silicosis and repeated its directives to the provincial health secretaries to compile statistics of the patients of the disease treated in hospitals.

Petitioner Usama Khawar told Dawn that two victims of silicosis had died during the course of the hearing by the court. One of them was Barkat Ali, 25, of Dera Ghazi Khan whose two minor children and widow had not been given compensation.

He said five patients from Gujranwala were terminally ill and required urgent medical and financial help, but the labour department, especially the social security commissioner, had not taken any step to alleviate their suffering.

Published in Dawn, January 11th, 2015

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