IHC orders the release of illegally detained brick-kiln workers in Dhok Makhna
ISLAMABAD: A court bailiff on Friday freed 22 brick-kiln workers who were put under illegal detention and subjected to physical abuse by their employers, in violation of fundamental human rights.
On the direction of Islamabad High Court Chief (IHC) Justice Iqbal Hameedur Rehman, the bailiff managed to recover the workers from Dhok Makhna on the outskirts of Islamabad.
Muhammad Ashraf, a relative of the workers, filed a writ petition in the IHC challenging their detention at the hands of five brick-kiln owners.
According to the petitioner’s counsel, Mian Sohail Ahmed, the illiterate workers had made a three-year oral employment agreement with the owners which began on August 2007.
According to the agreement, they were to be paid Rs350 for every 1,000 bricks that they made. However, the owners did not honour their part of the bargain and reduced the wage to Rs150 within the first six months.
When the agreement ended in August 2010, the workers, including men and women, were forcefully detained by the brick-kiln owners. From then on, after being made to work from 4am till 6pm every day, they were locked up in a room and forbidden from even meeting their relatives.
Any requests to be let out or paid more were met by brutal torture and verbal abuse, visible marks of which were shown to the court when the workers were produced for hearing. The workers were also denied medical treatment. Ahmed said the Punjab government in 2008 set the minimum wage at Rs442 per 1,000 bricks.
Source: Published in The Express Tribune, February 19th, 2011.
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