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The Abject Condition of Labor in Pakistan1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 July 2015

Kamal A. Munir ,
Natalya Naqvi  and
Adaner Usmani
Kamal A. Munir
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Natalya Naqvi
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Adaner Usmani
Affiliation:
New York University
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Extract

The strength of the trade union movement in Pakistan has ebbed and flowed over the course of the country's history, but today, after roughly twenty-five years of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization, the movement is arguably at its weakest point in recent memory.

Type
Reports from the Field
Information
International Labor and Working-Class History , Volume 87 , Spring 2015 , pp. 174 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © International Labor and Working-Class History, Inc. 2015 

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Footnotes

1.

We gratefully acknowledge the help that was extended to us in the course of writing this report by the following individuals: Karamat Ali, Zeenat Hisam, Mir Moladad Gabol, Aabida Ali, Kamran Asdar Ali, Muhammad Ayaz Tanoli, and Asad Sayeed.

References

Notes

2. Seidman, Gay, Manufacturing Militance: Workers' Movements in Brazil and South Africa, 1970–1985 (Berkeley, 1994)Google Scholar; Keck, Margaret E., The Workers' Party and Democratization in Brazil (New Haven, CT, 1995).Google Scholar

3. Ghayur, Sabur, Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan, International Publications (Ithaca, 2009)Google Scholar, 24. http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/intl/75/

4. Ali, Tariq, Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power? 1st ed. (London, 1970)Google Scholar; Candland, Christopher, “Workers' Organizations in Pakistan: Why No Role in Formal Politics?” Critical Asian Studies 39 (2007): 35–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Ghayur, Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan, 9–10.

6. Ali, Kamran Asdar, “The Strength of the Street Meets the Strength of the State: The 1972 Labor Struggle in Karachi,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 1 (2005): 87–88.Google Scholar

7. Ghayur, Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan, 25–26.

8. That said, much of this expansion was concentrated in the small-scale manufacturing sector. Large-scale enterprises and the textile industry did not do nearly as well. This, no doubt, helps explain the difficulties faced by the trade union movement in the late 1970s and 1980s as well [See Zaidi, S. Akbar, Issues in Pakistan's Economy, 2nd ed. (Karachi, 2006)Google Scholar].

9. Sayeed, Asad, Pakistan: Country Background Paper on Trade Unions in Pakistan (Karachi, 2006)Google Scholar, 13.

10. Candland, “Workers' Organizations in Pakistan,” 41.

11. IMF, IMF Management Welcomes Pakistan's Reform Measures, News Brief No. 97/4 (IMF External Relations Department, March 29, 1997), https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/nb/1997/nb9704.htm (accessed January 8, 2014).

12. Zaidi, Issues in Pakistan's Economy.

13. See, for example, IMF, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, Country Report (Washington, DC, 2004)Google Scholar; IMF, IMF Country Report: Pakistan (Washington, DC, 2005).Google Scholar

14. Irfan, Mohammad and Meekal, Ahmed, “Real Wages in Pakistan: Structure and Trends, 1970–1978,” The Pakistan Development Review 24 (1985)Google Scholar; Irfan, Mohammad, Pakistan's Wage Structure: During 1990/1991 to 2006/2007 (Islamabad, 2008).Google Scholar

15. Irfan, “Pakistan's Wage Structure: During 1990/1991 to 2006/2007; Faiz Bilquees, Civil Servants' Salary Structure,” working paper, Pakistan Institute of Development Economics, Islamabad, 2006).

16. According to the Labour Force Survey, an “own account worker” is a person who is self-employed, and who works on his/her own account with one or more partners, without any employee engaged on a continuous basis, but possibly with one or more “contributing family workers” or employees engaged on an occasional basis. A “contributing family worker” is a person who works without pay in cash or in kind on an enterprise operated by a member of his/her household or other related persons. The “vulnerable employment” category in the LFS is the sum of “own account workers” and “contributing family members.”

17. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, Pakistan Labour Force Survey 2012–2013: Annual Report, November 2013.

18. Interview with Karamat Ali, August 26, 2014.

19. The World Bank has developed an index that evaluates countries based on obstacles placed in front of employers seeking to sack their workers (0 denoting that it is very easy, 100 denoting very difficult). According to Basu and Maertens, Pakistan's score is 30 (Bangladesh is 20, and India is 90) [ Basu, Kaushik and Maertens, Annemie, “The Growth of Industry and Services in South Asia and Its Impact on Employment,” in Accelerating Growth and Job Creation in South Asia, ed. Ghani, Ejaz and Ahmed, Sadiq (New Delhi, 2009)Google Scholar, 85].

20. Sayeed, Pakistan: Country Background Paper on Trade Unions in Pakistan, 14.

21. Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research (PILER), Labour Rights in Pakistan: Expanding Informality and Diminishing Wages (Karachi, 2011)Google Scholar, 93.

22. World Bank, Pakistan Labor Market Study: Regulation, Job Creation, and Skills Formation in the Manufacturing Sector (Washington, DC, 2006).Google Scholar

23. IMF, IMF Country Report: Pakistan, Country Report (Washington, DC, 2012).Google Scholar

24. Ghayur, Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan, 21.

25. PILER, Labour Rights in Pakistan: Declining Decent Work and Emerging Struggles (Karachi, 2010)Google Scholar, 112; Ghayur, Evolution of the Industrial Relations System in Pakistan, 22.

26. PILER, Engaging with Labour: PILER Annual Report, 2013 (Karachi, 2013)Google Scholar, 5.

27. Ibid.

28. Sayeed, Pakistan: Country Background Paper on Trade Unions in Pakistan, 16.

29. Ali interview.

30. For instance, at least three central figures in the strike by the labor union of Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation Limited were booked on antiterrorism charges.

31. Sayeed, Pakistan: Country Background Paper on Trade Unions in Pakistan; PILER, Labour Rights in Pakistan: Expanding Informality and Diminishing Wages.

32. Ali interview.

33. Zafar Altaf, “Challenges in the Pakistan Cotton, Yarn, Textile and Apparel Sectors” (discussion paper, International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC, 2008).

34. US International Trade Commission, “Textiles and Apparel: Assessment of the Competitiveness of Certain Foreign Suppliers to the US Market,” Volume I, Investigation No. 332–448 (Washington, DC, 2004)Google Scholar. .http://www.usitc.gov/publications/332/pub3671.pdf

35. Joshi, Gopal, Garment Industry in South Asia: Rags or Riches? (International Labour Organization, 2002).Google Scholar

36. Haque, Ehsan ul. 2009. Current Status and Prospects of Female Employment in the Apparel Industry in Pakistan. UNDP-Pakistan. Report supplied by author.

37. Ibid.

38. PILER, Labour Rights in Pakistan: Declining Decent Work and Emerging Struggles.