PESHAWAR, May 01 (APP):Busy like a honeybee in wheat harvesting, Rafique Khan (40), a poor labourer of district Nowshera was repeatedly asking his co-workers to hurry up to complete the task before the sunset.
Unaware of the International Labour Day observed in many countries including Pakistan on Monday with national enthusiasm, the motivated labourer was assisted by his elder son Sadiq Khan and three more labourers in wheat harvesting in his native village Dheri Ishaq at tehsil Pabbi.
Known as Lala G, Khan who obtained a wheat harvesting contract includes wheat cutting, threshing and storage of the commodity, was working against the clock to complete it before the predicated rainfalls.
“I wake up early in the morning for cutting of standing wheat on five acres on contract ie per 200kg wheat or Rs8,000 per acre while separate charges were fixed for its threshing and wheat storage,” he told APP on Monday.
“Following the death of my father, Haji Muhammad Zaman, I discontinued my education after metric and started different labour jobs including wheat harvesting, fruits selling, transport and bricks kiln besides opening a small general store at my village to meet household, health and education’s expanses of my seven members family in the wake of skyrocketing price hike in KP,’ said Rafique.
‘ I closed my small general store after it was severely damaged by the last year’s devastated floods in River Kabul and has sold my rickshaw to return all the loans obtained for my shop,” he said.
Enjoying a cup of black tea under a Shisham tree with his fellow labourers before starting threshing of the wheat crop in the afternoon, he said, “We prefer wheat harvesting these days due to high profit margin compare to other labour jobs.”
‘Purchasing of own tractor-thresher was my dream but could not materialize it due to financial constraints,” he said.
He urged the government to give interest-free loans to labourers so that they may establish their own businesses.
Like Rafique and Sadiq, hundreds of thousands of workers were engaged in different labour works including wheat harvesting, construction, transport, bricks kilns and trees plantations in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, thus contributing to the country’s economic development.
Ist May is a significant day to remember and paid glowing tributes to all those labourers, who worked for the economic prosperity, and development and sacrificed their lives for Pakistan.
Like other 80 countries in the world, International Labour Day was also observed in Pakistan to pay homage to the great services of the labour community.
Every year, International Labour Day was observed in memory of the Chicago workers killed by police while protesting against long hours duty and low wages in 1886.
In Pakistan, Ist May was officially declared as public holiday after it’s inclusion in the first labour policy devised in 1972.
“The policy led to the formulation of a social security network, old age benefit schemes and workers welfare fund while the 1973 constitution ensured all rights to labour class,” said Syed Noman Bukhari, senior lawyer of trade and labour laws and member of Peshawar High Court Bar Association (PHCBA) while talking to APP.
He said Pakistan was a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) after its independence in 1947 and has protected all rights of the labourers including right of union and jobs in 1973 constitution. Pakistan has ratified 36 ILO conventions of which eight were important conventions, thus empowering labourers of all rights.
The Labour and Culture Department KP spokesman told APP that several housing projects were launched for the labourers in the province.
He said 2,056 flats at Labour City Regi Lalma Peshawar were constructed for registered industrial workers. Funds have been allocated for sanitation, water and street lights in Mardan Labour Colony.
Ikhtair Wali Khan, PMN KP spokesman and former MPA said that minimum labour wage has been increased to Rs25,000 per month by the present government. The federal government has planned to send around one million skilled labourers for abroad employment this year.
As many as sixteen countries including South Korea, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Azerbaijan, Iraq, Romania, Portugal and Malta have shown keen interest in hiring services of our skilled labourers. Since April last year, over six lac Pakistanis were sent abroad for employment.
He said one window OPF facilitation desk at Bacha Khan Airport Peshawar having representatives of 13 departments including PIA, NADRA, Immigration and Passport, Ministry of Religious Affairs, Customs, ANF, Bureau of Immigration and Oversees Employment, ASF, Overseas Employment Corporation, CAA and Overseas Pakistanis Foundation was established to swiftly address complaints of the overseas Pakistanis.
The allocation of five percent quota in public sector universities for children of overseas Pakistanis and financial support in the shape of payment of fees to them in foreign universities through Higher Education Commission was planned.
Overseas Pakistanis Foundation housing scheme has been launched at Budhni Road, Peshawar spread on 991 kanals near the motorway exit, which encompasses 681 residential and 74 commercial plots for labourers, he added.
Provincial President Peoples Labor Bureau KP, Shah Zulqarnain said the then PPP governments has increased salaries of labourers by over 150 percent besides giving them shares in profits of companies and regularized their jobs.
Provincial President of Pakistan Peoples’ Party KP and Minister for State, Muhammad Ali Shah Bacha said the employees and labourers were given all due shares in the government and semi government organizations during the Govt of Benazir Bhutto Shaheed.
He claimed that PTI government has failed to address problems of labourers. Under the new labour policy, he said that 400 percent of the workers’ salaries were increased and services of the temporarily workers were regularized besides restoration of the sacked employees.