FAISALABAD: Despite claiming life of a worker, dangerously installed power transformers continue to infest Ghulam Muhammad Abad industrial area, that is a hub of power-looms.

Nasir Raheem and Latif, both friends and colleagues working in a power-loom in Faizabad, Ghulam Muhammad Abad, were enjoying their leisure time by playing cards. What they ignored while choosing the place for a game of cards, that later proved to be their last, was a power transformer installed dangerously low above their heads.

What happened next was a nightmare; the transformer exploded spilling its boiling oil on Latif, who succumbed to his burns in a hospital days after the incident. Nasir Rahim is still struggling to recover from the trauma of a friend’s death.

However, the tragic tale could neither move the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company’s concerned authorities, nor the owners of power-looms in the area, and the ‘killer’ transformer, along with many others of its like, still mocks the workers.

“The government officers are dab hand at satisfying the people at the helm of affairs about their performance. However, reality remains otherwise,” Raheem says, remembering the good time he spent in the company of Latif.

Rahim’s expectations from local parliamentarians are very low. “These parliamentarians and ministers, regardless of their brand have full knowledge of the pathetic conditions in the industrial areas and miseries of the workers, but they do nothing,” he says with justified indignation.

Ghulam Mohammad Abad is full of transformer installed without any planning and having any consideration for workers safety. Many of these transformers are installed just shoulder-high that can lead to any tragic incident.

Khalil, brother of deceased Latif told Dawn thnat after the accident neither any government official nor the power-loom owner turned up at the Allied

Hospital where he was admitted. “Nobody came to visit us even after Latif’s death,” he added.

Aslam Miraj, secretary general of Labour Qaumi Movement, a body striving for the power-loom workers’ rights, says despite the death of a worker and burns suffered by five others, no action was taken against any Fesco official.

He said still a number of live wires were could be seen dangling, along with poorly installed transformers, in the area.

“Neither labour department nor Fesco officials are doing their duties properly. They just appear when any tragic incident happens and disappear after completing paperwork, instead of doing anything practical,” he says.

Miraj says it is also sad that no financial compensation is paid to the family of the deceased worker.

Sadiq Ali, a power-loom owner, says, “We had been providing the workers handsome salaries and other facilities. However, the government departments instead of playing their pivotal role for the well-being of workers, exert pressure on factory owners whenever an accident occurs.”

Published in Dawn, December 29th, 2014