Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar, during a Supreme Court hearing in Islamabad on Thursday regarding the rights of brick kiln workers, ordered a worker and his family be freed from bonded labour in Sialkot.
A three-member bench headed by Justice Nisar was hearing a suo motu case on the matter, during which reports from Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Sindh were submitted before the court regarding the provision of rights to the kiln workers.
"Workers and their children are forced into labour at these brick kilns. The purpose of this suo motu notice is to free these workers and their children from bonded labour," remarked the chief justice.
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During the course of the hearing, the deputy attorney general informed the court that 2,739 labourers and children were freed in Punjab, for which 15,000 raids were conducted, and 1,300 cases registered against the brick kiln owners for forcing the workers into bonded labour.
On the appeal of a brick kiln worker claiming his children and relatives are forcibly kept in "sweat factories" by certain brick kiln owners, the court ordered DPO Sialkot to free the family from bonded labour and present them before the court on Monday.
The case was adjourned until the next hearing on Monday.
