FAISALABAD: A survey of eight districts, done by the Labour Qaumi Movement (LQM) and Pattan Development Organisation, has revealed that appointment letters are not being issued to brick kiln workers, labour laws are being flouted and women are getting low wages as compare to male workers.

Addressing a press conference here on Friday, LQM Chairman Mian Abdul Qayyum and secretary Aslam Miraj said they had conducted a survey of 324 kilns in Faisalabad, Jhang, Toba Tek Singh, Nankana, Multan, Muzaffargarh, Vehari and Layyah.

“According to the survey, 96pc of labourers said the labour laws are being ignored, healthcare facilities are not available and only 2.4pc females have knowledge of sexual harassment and the women protection law,” they said, adding no arrangements had been made at the kilns to stop accidents.

About 40 per cent kiln workers said the owners were not maintaining record of advance payments and recovery of such amounts and 81pc workers said they could not leave their jobs at will.

“The workers have no freedom of union at the kilns and such violations are common owing to ineffective inspection of kilns by the labour department as about 55pc labourers said no government officer had ever visited their kiln and social security and Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) facilities are also not available for them,” the LQM leaders said.

They demanded the district governments make vigilance committees active through regular meetings and implement decisions of such committees.

They said the Punjab government, about 10 months back, had issued a notification, fixing wages of kiln workers at Rs962 per 1,000 bricks; however, the government did not implement it.

GCUF: Government College University Faisalabad Vice Chancellor Dr Muhammad Ali says Pakistanis are suffering from different types of depression due to the media, social media and mobile phones.

Addressing the concluding session of a two-day conference, titled Latest Research Trends in Pakistan, Dr Ali said depression was increasing mental disorder and people were not having peaceful sleep due to programmes being run on the media.

The media and social media, including Facebook, should have played a positive role for the youth who were being hit by them, he added.

Dr Khalid Mahmood, Dr Haq Nawaz and others also spoke.

Published in Dawn, April 30th, 2016