KARACHI: Highlighting the inhumane conditions workers, especially miners, are forced to work in the country, representatives of various labour organisations called upon provincial governments to strictly enforce labour laws and ensure that workers perform their jobs in a safe environment.

They were speaking at a press conference at the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) Pakistan office on Thursday to raise their voice over lacl( of health and safety standards at workplaces, especially mines.

Speaking about the recent tragedy in Sanjdi area of Quetta, they said that of the 13 workers who were present in the 400-foot-deep mine at the time of the explosion, bodies of only eight workers had been recovered so far.

`According to the latest information, all miners died along with two rescueworkers. This is very tragic. However, this is not the first incident of its kind.

Earlier, 27 workers died due to suffocation after a blast in their mine in Quetta,` said Nasir Mansoor, the deputy general secretary of NTUF.

Seventy coal miners have been killed since May in various accidents in Balochistan alone.

`The number of such accidents is constantly rising, indicating complete violation of the mines act by mine owners and the government`s indifference to the suffering of the workers,` he added. He said that the plight of labourers in other provinces was also not different and what labour organisations had been demanding of the governments was strict enforcement of labour regulations and laws to ensure safety of labourers and forcing employers to follow health and safety standards.

`Nobody has learnt any lesson from the 2012 Baldia factory tragedy that took lives of 260 innocent workers, thedeath of 30 workers at Gadani shipbreaking yard in 2016 and other occupational mishaps which happen almost on a daily basis in different parts of the country,` Mr Mansoor regretted.

He also talked about the textile, garments and hosiery sectors which are helping the country earn huge foreign exchange, but where working conditions were very bad and workers were vulnerable to all kinds of exploitation.

`These sectors report the highest number of industrial mishaps every year,` he said.

These sectors, they said, come under the Sindh Industrial Relations Act, 2013, but ironically the government had not framed any rules under this law in the last five years, depriving millions of workers of their rights.

Riaz Abbasi, general secretary Atlas Group of Companies Workers Union and Bashir Ahmed Mahmoodani representing the Gadani ship-breaking workers` union, also spoke.