KARACHI, Dec 13: Eighty per cent of the labour courts in Karachi, the city that has the largest industrial base in the country, are not functioning, causing immense hardships to workers.

Since the Sindh Labour Appellate Tribunal has been abolished, the trials of the cases there have also been stopped, and these are being transferred to the High Court.

According to the sources, four out of the five labour courts in the city are not working. These courts are either vacant or judges of lower grades have been appointed there.

The sources say that the three other labour courts working in other divisional headquarters — Hyderabad, Sukkur and Larkana — for the rest of the province are working normally.

Section 44 (3) of the recently announced Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 prescribes that the presiding officer of a labour court should be a district judge. The sources say that a couple of courts in the city are not working as the presiding officers are not district judges, while no judges have been appointed in the other two courts.

The presiding officer of the Labour Court 1 is Fahmida Qadeer who is a district judge, and the court which is trying over 300 cases is working normally.

The presiding officer of the Labour Court 2 is Syed Abid Hussain Shah who is an additional district judge, so he has stopped performing his duties. Over 580 cases are pending in the court.

Mohammad Ali Rizvi, who was presiding officer of the Labour Court 3 retired a long time back, and the court where over 230 cases are pending is not working.

Presiding officer of the Labour Court 4, Arjan Ram, was promoted, made district judge and transferred a few months back, and the court where over 300 cases were being tried has since remained vacant.

Raja Banstani, presiding officer of the Labour Court 5, stopped working since the IRO 2002 was promulgated, as he is not a district judge but an additional district judge. Over 630 cases are pending in the court.

Presiding officer of the Labour Court 6 (Hyderabad), Syed Irshad Ali, is a district judge. The court is operating normally and over 300 cases are being tried there.

Presiding officer of the Labour Court 7 (Sukkur) is Rasool Bux Siyal who is a district judge and he is performing his duties. Some 10 cases are being tried in the court.

Presiding officer of the Labour Court 8 (Larkana) is Syed Zamir-ul-Hasnain, a district judge. Eighty cases are being tried and the court is working normally.

The trials of 525 cases that were being tried in the Sindh Labour Appellate Tribunal which was headed by a the septuagenarian Justice (retd) Munawar Ali Khan have also stopped as the tribunal has been abolished under the IRO 2002 and the cases are being sent to the Sindh High Court.

General secretary of the National Trade Union Federation, Salim Raza, has expressed concern over the indifferent attitude of the government towards labour issues. He has demanded that judges be posted to the labour courts so that the grievances of labourers could be redressed.