KARACHI - Trade unions’ leaders have demanded the government to provide compensation to all the families of the victims of Baldia factory fire, including to those who are waiting for DNA reports through the commission headed by retired judge of Supreme Court Justice (r) Rehmat Hussain Jaffery, set up by the Sindh High Court.
Addressing a joint press conference at Karachi Press Club on Thursday afternoon, the Executive Director of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) Karamat Ali, Nasir Mansoor of National Trade Union Federation and trade union leaders Noor Muhammad, Nawab Ali and Rehana Yasmeen criticised the statement by Sindh Health Minister that the remaining bodies would be collectively buried soon.
Sindh Minister Dr Sagheer Ahmad who, in a meeting with the relatives of the deceased on Wednesday, had said that the bodies in the Edhi morgue would be collectively buried. After such a long period and despite conducting the DNA three times, the bodies have still not been able to be identified, which proves that in this country there is no effective DNA testing system. This is a grave matter, they said. They regretted that there is a plenty of wasteful expenditure in this country, however, spending on upgrading the DNA technology is not a priority. They also questioned collective burial of the bodies through district administration. They asked the government to bury the bodies after consultation with the Sindh High Court and the Justice (r) Rehmat Hussain Jaffery Commission. “We demand the government to compensate the relatives who have provided their DNAs for testing. Other than that, we believe that it has not yet been determined through any satisfactory arrangement exactly how many workers were present inside the factory at the time of the fire. The factory owners must have a record of all the workers which should be recovered from them. At the moment, 22 families have received bodies and without wasting any more time they should be compensated.”
The labour leaders pointed out that about 262 workers had lost their lives in the fire on September 11, 2012 and relatives of 210 of the deceased have received compensation cheques. After this, 22 bodies were handed over to relatives. However, 17 bodies are still placed in Edhi’s morgue storage. DNA testing of the relatives of these 17 deceased workers has been carried out, however, the bodies have still not been handed over to them. They mentioned that the Employees Old age Benefit Institution (EOBI) has granted pension documents to families which are only valid for the next 5 years. “We believe that this is clearly against the laws surrounding the administration of pensions and that all the families should receive lifelong pensions.”  The EOBI should be held accountable for this unlawful discrimination against the laws, all families should receive pension documents with a lifelong validity.” According to the prime minister’s promise, the death grant by the worker’s welfare fund has not been given to the families of the victims, so they demand that these be given to the families immediately so that they can ease the hardships of the circumstances they are in. They also demanded that the compensation amount given by the government, factory owners, certification authorities and German company KIK should be pooled for permanent rehabilitation of the families of the factory fire victims.  They also demanded that the Justice Qurban Alvi’s Commission Report be made public immediately.