Sindh Govt alerted to child labour employed by SSWMB
In a letter penned to Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, Provincial Minister for Human Rights Chauhdry Iftikhar Ahmed, Provincial Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah, Chairperson of the National Commission on the Status of Children Afshan Tehseen and the Sindh Child Protection Authority, the Helpline Trust has raised concerns over the employment of children as sweepers by contractors under the Sindh Solid Waste Management Board (SSWMB) in Karachi.
The letter provided the SSWMB has sublet the task of sweeping and cleaning roads to a Chinese company which further sublet Pakistani contractors who employ hundreds of janitors, including 12 to 15-year-old boys and girls. Furthermore, these contractors exploit workers by paying them a monthly salary of Rs. 12,000, well below the official minimum of Rs. 17,500, and are neither registered with the Employees’ Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) nor any other form of social security.
The letter urged the Sindh Child Protection Authority to provide support to children aged below 18.
Police gun down two motorcyclists in Jacobabad
Two motorcyclists on Saturday, May 22, succumbed to bullet wounds sustained after policemen fired upon them near Tikundi Bagh on the National Highway in the jurisdiction of the Civil Lines Police in Jacobabad.
Special Squad and ’15’ Madadgar personnel shifted Bakhtiar Ali Jakhrani and Mohammad Sher Jakhrani to Jacobabad Civil Hospital where doctors pronounced Bakhtiar dead on arrival. Mohammad Sher was taken to a hospital in Larkana in critical condition but later succumbed to his wounds. The body was taken back to the Civil Hospital.
Police had arrested a third rider, Babul Jakhrani, however relatives of the deceased who reached the site upon receiving information about the incident recovered him from the police van, and staged a protest at the scene of the killings. Babul claimed that the police began chasing them from Pechuho Phatak and opened fire upon them near Tikundi Bagh without justification. He stated that the police were in front of them when they began shooting.
However, police had denied the accusations, pointing out that they could not have fired on the motorcyclists from the front if they were chasing them, and that the personnel were carrying their official G3 and Kalashnikov rifles while the victims were killed with TT gun ammunition. Moreover, one of the motorcyclists had first fired upon the policemen chasing them, injuring an officer.
Five-day polio drive to commence in Rawalpindi in June
A five-day poliovirus vaccination drive to set to commence on June 7, in which 885,400 children under five years of age will be administered oral poliovirus vaccines (OPV) in all tehsils and Union Councils of the Rawalpindi district.
2,964 polio teams, 396 area in-charges, 204 medical officers, and allied and tehsil headquarters (THQ) hospitals will participate in the campaign, while 307 centers will be established to administer the anti-polio drops.