Govt urged to ask Nadra to register mine workers
QUETTA: A sub-committee of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Labour and Manpower urged the government on Thursday to assign Nadra the task of carrying out a nationwide registration of workers, particularly those working in coal mines because most of them were deprived of social security benefits.
The committee made the request at the conclusion of its two-day meeting held here.
Members of the committee observed that coal mine workers across the country hailed mostly from Swat and Bajour and performed a hard and risky job.
Dr Omar Babar, a member of the committee, said that coalmine workers took resting for a brief period and were deprived of any social security and other benefits. No serious efforts were ever made for their registration under the exiting laws.
He said that although registration of the workers with help of mine-owners or contractors had been considered in the past but because of some hindrances, the desired results could not be achieved.
“Labourers had to travel to other provinces for livelihood and because of non-existence of nationwide registration, they get no social security benefits,” Dr Babar said.
Engineer Khattak said that if Nadra issued “Labor Smart Card” to workers after their nationwide registration they could get such benefits irrespective of where they worked.
The meeting was presided over by chairman Malik Noman Ahmed and was attended also by Mohammad Tariq Khan Khattak, Secretary of Balochistan’s Labour Department Haider Shikoh; former Labour Secretary Dr Omar Babar and Deputy Secretary of the sub-committee M.A. Soomro.
The labour secretary told the meeting that a hospital constructed by the labour department in Chamalang coalfield would be run by the Balochistan Employees Social Security Institution if the health department did not take it over.
The chairman and members of the committee regretted that no progress had been made in industrialisation in Balochistan.
Source: Dawn
Date:7/30/2010
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