IN Karachi’s Defence Housing Authority (DHA) and other posh areas, I see long queues of people along the roads early in the morning waiting to get their free breakfast either from some generous wayside eatery or from some philanthropic organisation or magnanimous individuals. The breakfast so served is wholesome and will cost more than Rs100 if purchased from the market.

Such queues are a common sight and one can see more than a few individuals in blue-coloured uniforms working somewhere as security guard, waiting for their turn, or having their breakfast on a table close by. It is comforting to note that the organisations serving free breakfast, maintain the dignity of their beneficiaries.

It is quite disheartening to see these salaried security guards having to queue up for free meals. Besides, is it realistic to expect reliability and commitment from these individuals in terms of security when they are themselves facing such financial distress?

On asking, a group of such guards told me that they were drawing a monthly salary of Rs18,000 for working 12-hour shift seven days a week. The existing minimum wage of unskilled workers, mind you, is Rs25,000 per month across Pakistan.

The West Pakistan Shops and Establishments Ordinance, 1969, is applicable to workers other than those employed in factories, which regulates the working hours and provides for the grant of leave etc. This ordinance is not applicable to the security guards, which has also been confirmed by a two-member bench of the Supreme Court in its judgment dated Oct 3, 2019.

However, this exemption does not prohibit the employers of security guards from meeting the spirit of the law. The Convention No. 01 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), entitled ‘Hours of Work (Industry) Convention, 1919’, also ratified by Pakistan, prescribes a maximum work day of eight hours, and no more than 48 hours per week, which means at least a weekly day off. Similar limits of daily and weekly working hours have been prescribed by Convention No. 30, entitled ‘Hours of Work (Commerce and Offices) Convention, 1930’.

As the security companies mostly work for affluent clients, the latter should not have any issue in bearing the minimum cost of these security guards’ wages and benefits, as provided by the law for other classes of workers. All that is needed is aversion to exploitation. What we generally see is penchant for it. What a pity.

Parvez Rahim
Karachi

Published in Dawn, September 4th, 2022