On February 6, 2012 the three-storey building of a pharmaceutical company named “Orient Laboratory” engaged in the manufacturing of veterinary medicines collapsed after a boiler explosion. The factory was located at Kharak Stop, Multan Road, Lahore. The explosion was so huge that the entire building was razed to the ground. Around 30 people were killed and many injured including men, women and children. About 70 people were working inside the factory at the time of the disaster. As of today only 20 persons have been rescued and it is feared that there could be more persons under the wreckage of the building. However, no signs of life have been monitored over the human scan machine. The Provincial Government and the owners of the factory are trying to stop the rescue operation in an effort to camouflage the heavy loss of life and criminal negligence for not following the labour laws and Factories Act.
The people of the local residential area, in their desperation, were shifting the rubble with their bare hands to find the bodies of their loved ones. The unfortunate accident occurred around 8:30 AM on Monday morning. There are several violations here as, first of all it is illegal for women to work after sunset (7 PM) and also, they had been working during the night of Sunday which, according to the Labour Act is also illegally. The factory has operated for the past 25 years in the residential area with the knowledge of the authorities including the Ministry of Labour. On many occasions the local residents complained to the Punjab Province authorities about the danger to their locality but the authorities concerned did not respond to the numerous pleas. The factory was shut down three times but with the cooperation of the Labour Ministry, the local police and influential people the factory was soon operating again albeit illegally.
The owners of the factory were so powerful that they had the blessings of the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Ch. Pervez Illahi who is now a senior Minister in the Federal Cabinet. The incumbent Provincial Government of Punjab also allowed the factory to operate illegally in the residential area ignoring the danger to the local people. The Provincial Government has been trying to down play the real cost in human lives by deliberately slowing down the rescue operation and claiming that there are no more bodies beneath the debris.
According to the media reports, of the 30 bodies pulled out from the wreckage after the rescue operation 20 are women, 5 are men and 5 were children. Normally 150 to 200 people were working in the factory round the clock. Most of the women and very young children were working in clearly exploitative conditions. Still there is no report about the remaining persons and it is not known whether they are alive or dead.
It is appalling that the death of over 30 people is not a matter of great concern for the rulers of Punjab Province. Within a period of one year more than 300 people have been killed by the negligence and ignorance of the Government. During the year almost 170 people were killed due to dengue fever and the only reason behind this was the lack of safety measures from the mosquitoes. Adding to this number around 147 people died in Lahore in a cardiac hospital by being administered substandard medicine. And now, last but by no means the least, 30 people or more, have died in this unfortunate factory blast.
The collapse of the three storey factory building exposes the criminal negligence on the part of Government for ignoring the basic Labour Laws and Factories Act. Since 2002 the establishment was never assessed for its environmental impact and the premises was never inspected by the labour inspectors. Factory inspections have always been ignored by the Punjab Provincial Government because of a nexus between the Labour Ministry and the owners of the factories to earn heavy profits. There are reports that thousands of factories are running in every district of the province. The workers in these factories are treated more like slaves. Although men work alongside their wives and children only one member of the family is paid.
The minimum wage has been fixed by the Government at Rs 7000/= per month but at Orient Laboratories the workers were being paid only Rs 3000 to 4000 per month. According to the Factories Act 45(b) no woman is allowed to work in a factory except between 6 AM and 7 PM. However, the factory was always running in the night and women were forced to work the night shift as well as holidays. The factory was also hiring children between the ages of 8 to 12 years which is a gross contravention of the Child Labour Factories Act 1934, according to which no child of less than 14 years can be hired.
The factories all over the country are not following the safety measures which result in the deaths of many workers every year but those deaths are not counted and the accidents have never been declared as such. There are laws which clearly emphasise continuous labour inspections but it has been observed that no registered or unregistered factories are being inspected regularly if at all. Indeed, it is on record with the government and trade unions that the unregistered and illegal factories have never been inspected and these factories are never counted in the Government’s records.
Pakistan has ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) and is a signatory to International Labour Organization (ILO), it is observed that in the presence of many labour laws the government and the authorities always try to ignore them and appease the factory owners by not strictly implementing the Labour Laws. This negligence and the criminal acts of the Ministry of Labour and their officers helped the owners to run their factories inside the residential areas throughout the country.
Although it is already seven days since the factory collapse the Government of Punjab has still not initiated any effort to crack down against the illegal factories in the residential areas. This is again a demonstration by the government that factories can operate in residential areas without hindrance.
Though the Chief Minister of Punjab has announced compensation for the dead and injured persons which is routine following every such incident the compensation never materializes and people have to run from one department to another in order to obtain it.
In Punjab, it is very much a case of the companies, not the government that is ruling. The incident proves that the bosses have been given a free hand to violate all the Labour Laws which includes child labour, under payment and that no job contracts are given to the workers. Frequently, women are sexually and physically abused and no measures are taken for their health and safety. The Punjab Provincial Government officials and the political representatives have not yet visited the homes of the dead workers to give any relief to the relatives.
The Government must immediately cancel the licenses of all factories which are running in residential areas until they register themselves under the Factories Act. The Labour Department should be geared up to have the factories inspected at every level and insure that all the requirements of the Labour Laws are followed.
It is up to the government of Punjab to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again. The owners of the Orient Laboratory and the provincial ministers and government employees who allowed them to operate must be brought to justice.
