ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court ordered the federal and provincial governments on Tuesday to come up with an outline of an action plan to halt the emergence of silicosis — a medical condition that afflicts labourers and stone-crushers – that causes the perforation of the lungs and ultimately leads to death.

“It is unfortunate that the case relating to silicosis has failed to receive attention on part of five governments since no concrete progress is apparent on ground,” Justice Jawwad S. Khawaja deplored.

Justice Khawaja is heading a three-judge Supreme Court bench that had taken up an application, filed by human right activists Usama Khawar and Yahya Farid, deploring the failure of employers to provide safe working conditions to workers at stone-crushing and marble grinding factories.

The application also requested the Supreme Court to take notice of the unfortunate deaths of 18 stone-crushers in Gujranwala and other cities of the country, who had suffered at the hands of the incurable disease.

On Tuesday, Justice Khawaja also sent a loud and clear message that the Supreme Court was ready to do whatever it took to reach out to the people by monitoring government efforts in this regard.

The Supreme Court also regretted that no one from the Balochistan government appeared in the courtroom, whereas the reply submitted by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Additional Advocate General Waqar Ahmed candidly conceded that no mechanism of reporting diseases such as silicosis or maintaining a database of such patients existed in the province.

Representing Sindh, Dr Saeed Ahmed conceded that the province also lacked a similar mechanism, but informed the court that out of a total of 114 stone grinding and crushing factories in the province, 61 units have been closed down whereas 71 had been issued notices by the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency.

AAG Punjab Razzaq A. Mirza presented a report on behalf of the provincial government.

On Tuesday, Usama Khawar also brought the frail-looking wheelchair-bound silicosis patient Mohammad Sajid, 33, who worked at one of the stone crushing factories in Gujranwala.

Sajid lost two of his elder brothers, Allah Rakha and Mohammad Shahid, to the same disease in 2012 and 2013, respectively.

Sajid told Dawn that he earned a paltry Rs150 to 200 per day for the dangerous work. Doctors had initially diagnosed him with tuberculosis, but he said that he knew both his brothers, who also worked alongside him at the same factory, had died of silicosis. Only his younger brother, who does not work, is still healthy.

On Tuesday Justice Khawaja regretted that being a destitute individual, especially women or the daughter of a poor person, was “the greatest crime in Pakistan”. The law will never come into action if something happens to them and police don’t even lodge FIRs if a crime is committed against them, he lamented.

The court also asked an officer from the Punjab Labour Department to visit stone-grinding factories along with Usama Khawar to see whether any protective gear had been provided to the labourers working in these factories and report back to the court on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, April 15th, 2015

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