NA sub-committee takes serious notice of not preparing labour policies by provinces in three years

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly's (NA) sub-committee on Human Rights on Tuesday took serious notice of the failure of not preparing labour polices by the three provinces including Khaber Pakhtunkhawa, Sindh and Balochistan after passage of three years.

The committee also recommended that a member of Environment Protection Agency (EPA) should be made the permanent member of Capital Development Working Party (CDWA), Provincial Development Working Body (PEWP) for ensuring that no damage is caused to environment while executing new projects.

Chairing a Sub-committee meeting, convener Member National Assembly Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub recommended that government should strengthen EPA departments of the capital as well as provinces by giving them financial and technical assistance to safeguard environment.

The sub-committee also said that all the implementation agencies should be strictly directed to check any violation of environmental issue and the action taken by EPA against industries should be followed immediately.

The committee was apprised that the labour policy of Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) and Punjab had been developed and its implementation has also started.

Representative of Sindh government briefed the committee that Sindh labour policy was ready and is likely to be launched on February 10, dding, “the first labour policy of the country was introduced on February 10, 1972 by Zulfiqar Ali Butto so they have fixed the same date to announce Sindh labour policy”.

An official of Khaber Pakhtunkhwa government informed that KP labour policy would hopefully be completed by March while the Balochistan government officials said that they were still working on the document.

The official of Punjab government informed that almost 6700 industries are working in the provinces and they have established industrial state units whereas in many cities where all the industries are being shifted to ensure safe environment for the residents of nearby communities.

Replying a query on restricting use of polythene bags, the Punjab government official said, after textile it was the second largest industry with thousands of employees.

“We cannot close all the shopping bag manufacturing industries as a large number of people would lose their income sources”, he said adding, however, they have proposed two amendments to check its production.

We have recommended that minimum thickness of the shopping bag should be raised to 40 micron from the current standard of 15 micron as it would increase the cost of preparing bags and ultimately shopkeepers would start charging on it, resultantly people would start using reusable cloth bags.

Secondly, he said it has been recommended that Oxco Bio Garbage Bags be introduced which would defuse after certain time.

The committee also directed all the provinces to take steps for not keeping agriculture usage water not to mix with the industrial waste water so that its harmful chemicals would not effects the agri production consumed by the human beings.