Day: June 20, 2021

KARACHI:Sindh Education and Labour Minister Saeed Ghani on Sunday performed the groundbreaking of the new educational complex of the non-profit Green Crescent Trust (GCT) in Mehrabpur.

Also present on the occasion were around 50 top donors of the GCT who especially travelled over 350 kilometres from Karachi and reached the event’s venue to show their firm commitment to the cause of educating children of the deprived families in Sindh.

The team of non-profit Shahid Afridi Foundation, which is the leading partner of the GCT in its drive to enroll out-of-school children in Sindh, was also present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Sindh Education Minister praised the untiring struggle of the GCT continuing for the past 27 years to educate children of the underprivileged areas of Sindh.

He said that indeed the Sindh government required support from the bona fide non-governmental organizations like the GCT to end illiteracy in Sindh. He said that education was one of the most affected fields due to the Covid-19 pandemic as the government had to join hands with the concerned private sector and the NGOs to fully revive academic activities in the best interest of the students.

The Education Minister said that his presence at the event showed his personal interest to get cooperation from the leading charities like the GCT to educate children of the underprivileged areas in the province. He recalled that in the recently unveiled budget of the Sindh government, education had secured the highest allocation of over Rs 377 billion showing their utmost resolve to educate the coming generations.

He said the Sindh government’s Labour Department would also seek cooperation from the leading NGOs of the education sector to provide quality school education to children of labourers in the province.

Speaking on the occasion, the CEO of GCT Zahid Saeed said the GCT had established over 150 charitable schools in Sindh having an enrollment of over 29,000 students of the backward areas. He said that prior to building the new educational complex, the GCT had 10 charitable schools in Mehrabpur having 2,500 students of destitute families.

The new educational complex would enrol another 2,500 students of the town from Class Prep to Class 12 after completion of the project. He said the construction of the project would complete in one year’s time. He appreciated the fact that a single donor had fully financed the new academic project of the GCT in Mehrabpur as the philanthropist in question despite spending millions of rupees wanted to remain completely anonymous.

Zahid Saeed expressed his sincerest gratitude to the donors and sponsors of the GCT for their generous support for the mission to provide school education of top standard to children of the less-privileged areas in Sindh. He mentioned that the charitable educational network of the GCT in Mehrabpur provided direct and indirect employment to thousands of youth of the faraway town of Sindh.

The GCT CEO said that his charity required more support from the corporate sector to widen the footprint of its charitable work in the education sector of Sindh to cover the entire least developed portion of the province. He promised on the occasion to inaugurate the project on 14th August, 2022.

Saeed Ghani also promised to attend the inauguration ceremony of the project next year. MPA of area Mumtaz Chandio also attended the ceremony and promised to support the work of GCT in entire district of Nasuhahro Feroze.

KARACHI:Reacting to Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry’s statement, Jam Ikramullah Dharejo, Provincial Minister for Industries, said in a statement Sunday that ministers of the ‘selected’ federal government do not do any work in their respective departments, however, there are definitely attacks on Sindh on a daily basis.

Dharejo further said that lies were being told by the federal ministers on a daily basis which was a shameful act. He said, “There is a need to set up a high-level commission of inquiry into the oil and gas production from Sindh.

Chaudhry should keep in mind that the debt of Sindh would come out from the High Commission of Inquiry in terms of gas and oil, therefore, Sindh should be given its due right by making a financial estimate of Sindh’s natural resources.

Dharejo said that the federal government had given Sindh nothing but gas and electricity load shedding in exchange for gas and oil. “Federal government does not want to implement the 18th Amendment, nor does it want to give the provinces their rights. It is unfortunate that all the gas and oil companies in Ghotki have closed their doors of employment to the local people.”

Dharejo added that PTI government had brought nothing but disaster while PPP had given record development projects during its tenure which were part of history. He was of the opinion that the present federal government had deprived the common man of the ability to buy flour and sugar.

KARACHI:Former Finance Minister and eminent economist Dr Hafiz A. Pasha has indicated that still over 100 million people in Pakistan are jobless despite the lifting of the COVID-19 lockdown. “Our estimate is that after COVID-19 and so-called recovery still, the unemployment rate is not less than 5% which is the largest rate in the county history.

He was speaking online at the launching ceremony of a report on “Labour and Employment in Pakistan” organized by Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) Pakistan in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) at a local hotel, according to a statement issued on Sunday. The report is based on both rigorous economic analysis and on the intention to make Pakistan a better and more progressive society, serving all its members.

Dr. Pasha said the Finance Advisor to Prime Minister Shaukat Tareen has agreed that out of 55 million workers about 23 million were affected by Coronavirus (COVID-19), consequently, most of them were unemployed or their income was decreased.

“So our finance minister does not know that about 7.7 million people were unemployed before the COVID,” he remarked. Dr. Pasha said he met with a waiter at a McDonald restaurant, who was an MBA from a local university. “He told me that he was mostly relying on customers’ tips.”

He said the majority of workers are not getting minimum wages, fixed by the provincial governments. Women workers even get less amount being paid to male workers, he added. Dr. Pasha pointed out that the majority of workers are getting even the social security facilities available for registered workers. Today, the total coverage of social security institution is around 8.7 million, whereas 480,000 retired workers are getting pension. He said EOBI and Workers Welfare Fund should be given to the provinces.

He said trade unions have declined in Pakistan and currently only one percent of workers are organized in trade unions. In China, half of the workers are in the even in India trade unions are more organized.

Dr. Pasha has recommended in the report that priority should be given to promoting the development of sectors that are labour intensive and where the elasticity of employment with respect to output growth is larger. These sectors can be agriculture, manufacturing (especially small and medium enterprises), construction and private services.

He suggested that priority should be given to targeting fiscal incentives, appropriate pricing policies, bank credit and services to these sectors. Speaking on the occasion, former Advisor to the Chief Ministers of Sindh and Balochistan and senior economist, Dr. Kaiser Bengali said Pakistan’s the economy is a casino economy.

Our economy is currently mostly standing on agriculture and industry. “We have weaker legs but a large body.” He said Pakistan economy is on a ventilator. He said he knew many youths are driving Uber and Careem cars after doing a Master degree. “It is a middle-class poverty because they don’t have a salary for an entire month. After three weeks, their salary is finished.” He said you can find white-collar families are begging on Karachi’s roads, they are not professional beggars and most of them belong to middle-class families.”

He said the production regime should be changed to employ more labour force. Currently social security, EOBI facilities are available only for formal workers and that number is shrinking. Agriculture workers who constitute a major portion of the labour force have never been covered under any social security scheme. It is the responsibility of the state to provide social security to all its citizens.

Director of Aurat Foundation Ms. Mahnaz Rahman said Pakistan is ranked at 151 out of 153 under the global gender parity index. She pointed out that women are not calculated in the labour force and currently official statistics indicated that only 25.2 percent of women are part of the country’s labour force.

Secretary of Labour, Government of Sindh Rasheed Solangi said Sindh has a credit to lead labour legislation after the 18th Amendment in Constitution. Sindh organized the first provincial Tripartite Labour Conference in which the government increased the representation of labour representatives on boards of labour welfare institutions.

In 2018 Home-based Workers Act was made in Sindh and its rules have been passed by the provincial Cabinet. Sindh Employees Social Security Institution (SESSI) has registered 665,000 workers. In his welcome remarks Dr. Jochen Hippler, Country Director of FES Pakistan said that problems of unemployment, discrimination, dangerous job and injustice still needed corrections. He hoped that serious efforts would be made to change the situation.

More unity among workers is needed, he said that unions are in fact pillars of democracy and labour movements. The event was attended by the senior leadership and representatives of trade union federations, labour organizations, policy makers, Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, civil society organizations, academia, youth and media from all four provinces of Pakistan.

Representatives of the labour and trade unions appreciated the research work of Dr. Hafiz Pasha and publication of the report by FES Pakistan. Those who also spoke on the occasion included Karamat Ali, Executive Director of PILER; Khalid Mahmood of Labour Education Foundation (LEF); senior trade union leaders Hanif Ramay, Habibuddin Junaidi, Abdul Haque, Shakeela Asghar, Mirza Maqsood, Mahar Safdar and others spoke on the occasion.

KARACHI:Unknown men stabbed a youth to death in Rohri on Sunday. According to Rohri police, unidentified men attacked Din Muhammad Shaikh, 25, a resident of old Sukkur area, with knives, killing him on the spot in Rohri.

The body was handed over to his heirs after an autopsy from a Rohri hospital. Later the heirs and relatives of deceased along with body blocked National Highway’s Rohri Bypass and burnt the tyres against the killing of the youth following which traffic coming from sides Punjab to Sindh remained suspended. After assurance of justice by Rohri police, the protesters dispersed peacefully.

Meanwhile, a youth, Hidayatullah Mazari, aged 22, committed suicide by taking a poisonous substance at village Meeral Mazari near Ubauro as a result he fell unconscious. He was brought to a Sadiqabad hospital where he died. The cause behind the suicide was stated to be over a petty issue.

KARACHI:Karachi police on Sunday claimed to have arrested three accused involved in street crime from Sharafi Goth.

According to police sources, police acted on a tip-off in Hashim Goth and arrested three street criminals. The accused have been identified as Aftab alias Rajab, Arif and Arsalan.

The arrested accused were also involved in motorcycle lifting. The arrested suspects were wanted in several robbery cases, including firing on police. Weapons used in the incident and snatched mobile phones were recovered from the arrested accused, the police said.

Police also seized two stolen motorcycles used by the accused. The motorcycles recovered from the accused were stolen from Korangi Industrial Area and Korangi police station. The police said motorcycle theft cases are already registered against unknown accused.

The arrested accused used to carry out snatching incidents in Malir and Korangi districts. All three suspects are habitual offenders and have been arrested and jailed before, police officials.