HYDERABAD: A two-day workshop on `Bonded labour laws and rights` organised by special task force of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) in a local hotel has called for reviving efforts for the liberation of bonded haris and their rehabilitation.

HRCP secretary general I.A. Rehman and vice president Asad Butt, Sikandar Brohi of the Participatory Development Initiatives, Palwa Shah, Sohail Sangi, Naz Sehto, Comrade Taj Mari, Pehlaj Kohli, Veeru Kohli, Veerji Kohli and Ms Sita were among the participants.

Veteran rights activist Hussain Nagi moderated the Friday session during which liberated haris (mostly women) shared their ordeals during captivity of influential cruel landowners.

They spoke of hunger, starvation, violence and sexual assaults by henchmen of their employers.

Ghulam Hyder, an activist working for the welfare of bonded haris, said a landowner having as small land as four acres would hold haris in bondage and malce men, women and children to prepare liquor and do such other works. While liberating bonded haris is a noble cause, some unscrupulous elements have now turned it into their business, charging Rs10,000 per family from such people, according to him. `Such elements are even involved in human trafficking,` he revealed.A member of a liberated family, Mannu Bheel, narrating his ordeal said that his nine family members had gone missing in May 1998 while working for a landowner of Sanghar. `The HRCP task force had got them freed but they were later kidnapped in Jhuddo, he recalled. He said he himself was nominated in half a dozen false FIRs for continuing his struggle for the recovery of the missing family members.

I.A. Rehman told the participants that the basic objective of the workshop was to see what the rights activists had learnt from the struggle and what should be done for the effective implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1992 enacted years ago.

`The struggle against bonded labour has to be revived with a new vigour,` he said and stressed the need for the rehabilitation of liberated haris.

Expressing concern over plight of women peasantry in bondage, he said they not only lost honour, but also failed to take care of their children as there was no concept of `home` in their lives.

He called for lobbying with Sindh`s legislators who could do something in this regard as it was state`s weakness that a hari always remained a peasant. `The HRCP doesn`t want to claim its monopoly over the cause but can bridge the gap between labour federations, women`s rights organisations and hari bodies,` he said.

He sought suggestions from stakeholders about adding the clause of `an agreementbetween haris and their employers` to the Act on the pattern of one included in the law enacted by Punjab for kiln owners and workers. In Sindh, he said, such an agreement could be registered with a mukhtiarkar.

PTI programme Speaking at a programme `Issues of religious minorities in Pakistan and priorities of political parties` organised by the Pakistan Tehrik-iInsaaf (PTI) in a local hotel on Friday, HRCP secretary general LA. Rehman observed that religious minorities were taken better care with regard to basic amenities around the world.

Pakistan`s Constitution also guaranteed due rights of its religious minorities, he added.

`Despite that, minorities here face serious problems due to issues with the present system, he noted, and emphasised the need for seriously pondering over these issues.

He said the federal and provincial governments should pay due and immediate attention to the issues. He condemned the trend of forced marriages in Sindh and urged the Sindh government to take appropriate measures in this regard.

If it failed, the sense of insecurity among Hindus would continue to deepen, he warned.

PTI MNA Lal Malhi, Zulfikar Halepoto, Veeru Kohli, Ramesh Kumar and Punhal Sario were among the other speakers.