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Labor Problems of Pakistan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Nikki R. Keddie
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Extract

The industrialization of Pakistan, which has proceeded at a fairly rapid pace in the decade since partition, has engendered new and growing problems for industrial labor. These problems have until recently received scant attention from either the Government of Pakistan or from scholars. Domestic and international political matters and concern for rapid industrialization have hitherto occupied government officials more than a rigorous analysis of the economic problems of the population. Even scholars concerned with economic problems may make only peripheral references to industrial labor, as does Dr. S. M. Akhtar in his fine new edition of Economics of Pakistan. Recently, with the growth of the industrial labor force and of trade unions, greater official and scholarly concern has been shown for industrial workers. Accurate information on Pakistan's labor problems and some suggestions for their solution may be found in three recent works dealing with different aspects of labor in Pakistan. Several other sources for a study of Pakistan labor now exist, and it is possible from these to assess the position of the industrial worker and the prospects for its improvement.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , August 1957 , pp. 575 - 589
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1957

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References

1 These are A. F. A. Husain et al., “Human and Social Impact of Technological Change in Pakistan” (typescript, University of Dacca, 1954 [in press]); Pakistan, Ministry of Labour, Report of the I.L.O. Labour Survey Mission on Labour Problems in Pakistan (Karachi, 1954); and Pakistan Institute of Personnel Administration, Employees' Welfare in Pakistan (Karachi, 1955).

2 Written sources on labor in Pakistan include: All-Pakistan Confederation of Labour, Directory of the Affiliated Unions of the East and West Pakistan Federations of Labour (Karachi, 1956)Google Scholar; Arnold, F. B., Pakistan (London, 1955)Google Scholar; Dave, C. P., “Labor in Pakistan,” American Federationist, LX (August 1953), 18, 24Google Scholar; Eastern Pakistan Labour Journal; Malik, A. M., Labour Problems and Policy in Pakistan (Karachi, 1954)Google Scholar [a collection of speeches by the former Minister of Labour]; Ogden, Ronald, “Industrial Training in Pakistan,” PQ, VI (Winter 1955), 38–43Google Scholar; Pakistan, Department of Advertising, Films, and Publications, Labour in Pakistan (Karachi, n.d.); Pakistan, Office of the Census Commissioner, Census of Pakistan, 1951 (Karachi, n.d.); Pakistan, Ministry of Labour, Interim Manpower Survey Report (Karachi, 1955); Pakistan, Planning Board, The First Five Year Plan, 1955–60 (Draft), II (Karachi, 1956); Shafi, M., ed., Labour Code of Pakistan (Karachi, 1953)Google Scholar; Shafi, M., Pakistan Labour Year Book (hereafter PLYB), four editions (Lahore, 1950Google Scholar; Karachi, 1952, 1954, 1956); and Worker (Karachi) [a semiofficial periodical]. The forthcoming collection Studies in Pakistan Social Life, ed. S. Maron, contains some useful references, as do other works on Pakistan economics and sociology. The daily newspapers Dawn and The Pakistan Times are useful for details about labor conferences, speeches, and disputes.

3 Akhtar, S. M., Economics of Pakistan (Lahore, 1951), pp. 263–264.Google Scholar

4 Pakistan, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Economy of Pakistan (Karachi, 1951), p. 128.

5 PLYB, 1956, p. 1. Computation ours.

6 Interim Manpower Survey Report, pp. 28–35.

7 Census of Pakistan, I, 107.

8 Census of Pakistan, I, 106 lists 22.4 million persons in the labor force in 1951. A recent official survey shows 26.1 million in the labor force. See Dawn, May 18,1956.

9 Pakistan, Central Statistical Office, Statistical Bulletin, III (Karachi, June 1955), 650.

10 Census of Pakistan, I, 107.

11 Husain, pp. 151–152, and I.L.O., p. 98.

12 Iqbal Quraishi, “Housing and Transport,” Employees' Welfare, p. 71.

13 Cf. Mary Jean Kennedy, “Urban Society in West Punjab,” in Studies in Pakistan Social Life.

14 Mrs. Mahmood, Ayesha, “Special Problems of Women and Children,” Employees' Welfare, p. 146.Google Scholar

15 Employees' Welfare, p. 150, and I.L.O., p. 75, n. 1.

16 Census of Pakistan, I, 106. The Census gives the proportion as 30.7 per cent, but computation from census figures results in 30.3 per cent. U. S. figure from New York Times, April 1, 1956, pp. 1,62.

17 Cf. statements by government officials in Dawn, March 16, 1956, p. 6, and June 12, 1956, p. 8.

18 Dave, “Labor in Pakistan,” p. 18. Some of the information on the trade union movement in this section is based on conversations with observers of the Pakistan scene.

19 Poullada, Leon B., “Contemporary Political Parties in the Punjab (Pakistan)” (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1954), pp. 126–127.Google Scholar

20 APCOL, Directory, passim. (Most pages in the Directory are not numbered.)

21 The figures given in the Directory are 94,134 members in East Pakistan and 155,554 members in West Pakistan.

22 Dawn, Nov. 17, 1955, citing official figures.

23 Conversation with observer.

24 Shafi, Labour Code, pp. 364–373.

25 “Report of the I.L.O. Labour Survey Mission (Summary of Recommendations),” Pakistan Trade, V (April 1954), 51.

26 APCOL, Directory, passim.

27 Cf. statement by Minister of Labour, Nurul Huq Chaudhry, Dawn, May 18, 1956, p. 4, and declaration by the Central Government, Dawn, Feb. 10, 1956, p. 9.

28 Labour Code, pp. 340–349.

29 Pakistan Trade, VI (Jan. 1955), 44, and Eastern Pakistan Labour Journal, VII (Sept. 1955), 177.

30 Dawn, March 30, 1956, and April 6, 1956. The industries covered by the amendments are those listed in Arnold, Pakistan, p. 104.

31 Cf. Five Year Plan, II, 476. For a labor statement in favor of a permanent court instead of tribunals, which are felt to have pro-employer bias, see Pakistan Times, July 17,1956, p. 7.

32 Pakistan Trade, VI (Sept. 1955), 9–10.

33 Pakistan, Press Information Department, Handout E, No. 630 (Karachi, Feb. 20, 1953).

34 Eastern Pakistan Labour Journal, VII (March 1955), 15–16.

35 I.L.O., pp. 35–46, and Mahmood, “Special Problems,” pp. 150, 152.

36 Labour Code, pp. 3–30, 63–85.

37 I.L.O., p. 46, and “Report of the I.L.O.,” p. 47.

38 Employees' Welfare, pp. 27, 34–35, 38.

39 PLYB, 1952, pp. 166–167.

40 Press Handout E, No. 630.

41 I.L.O., p. 135, Husain, p. 298.

42 Worker, III (May-June 1954), 191.

43 Proceedings are in Employees' Welfare.

44 Five Year Plan, II, 473.