ISLAMABAD: Senate Committee on Human Rights here on Thursday urged to take immediate steps to implement human rights laws in the country for giving relief and protecting rights of the general public at the grassroots level.
Chairing the committee, Senator Nasreen Jalil expressed her dismay that the HR body raises the issue of human rights in the country but claimed that it has no powers for implementation of its direction to solve problems of people—the prime objective of establishing this committee.
She asked the Federal Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Tarar to present a detailed briefing on United Nations laws on human rights, and check the loopholes and lacunas in the national legislation, which create hindrances in the implementation process.
Earlier, the committee members raised the issue of brick kiln workers, who complained that they were forced to make a certain amount of bricks daily, and upon failing to achieve their target, their masters brutally torture them and their family members.
The chairperson directed to hold a meeting with the brick kiln owners in order to find out a permanent solution to this issue, as labourers were among one of the most underprivileged classes of the country.
The committee also highlighted the low wages of the National Commission on Human Development (NCHD) teachers, who are rendering their services in difficult situations but getting exploitative wages of even less than Rs10,000.
They pointed out that the lowest wages of labourers fixed in annual budget are more than this amount. They added that if the government cannot implement this basic rule for NCHD teachers, how could they be able to bound the corporate or private sector to give decent wages to their employees, especially those working at lower posts?