The Director-General of Civil Defence, Air Marshall (Retd) Sarfaraz Arshad Toor, has said that the country must be ready for ISO-18000 certification and for that reason safety management courses have been devised for which experts from India would also be called.
Speaking at a meeting of Site Association of Industry (SAI), requiring Site industries to nominate their managers for the safety management course, costing Rs 30,000 per person, the Civil Defence Director-General said he wanted this course to start from Karachi but so far there has been no response from industrialists of Karachi.
Toor said that Industrial Safety Management Training is a must to comply with the requirements of ISO-18000 as required under WTO without which it would not be possible to make exports from Pakistan in the WTO regime.
Specialised courses have been designed to meet the requirements of ISO-18000, the very purpose of which is to create industrial safety culture in Pakistan.
Toor, along with Captain Amjad Faizi, Course Incharge, made a presentation of the course and assured the industrialists that the Civil Defence officers would not visit their factories and that corruption would be disallowed in the organisation.
They said that their vision is to promote a safety culture in Pakistan's industries and that they aim to have qualified fire fighters in the country soon.
The purpose of the training is to safeguard the human lives in case of industrial accidents. Training is given to Safety Managers for increasing productivity by changing their attitude and keeping their working environment clean so that their health is not affected by industrial hazards.
He said that industrial safety revolves around professional identification of hazards, and added that human factors cause 80 percent of accidents. Safety Managers ensure corporate safety performance, save money, and co-ordinate with government agencies, he said.
Site industrialists asked whether Civil Defence was legally authorised, under the Act, to charge from industries for training courses. It transpired that the contract was given to a private party to organise these expensive courses through a directive issued by Federal Interior Minister, Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat, and that there has been no amendment in the law by the Parliament as such.
Site industrialists highlighted the fact that Karachi's industries were going through a rough patch and this was evident from the high cost of production of goods, a problem that even President Musharraf has taken cognisance of. In fact the industries located in Karachi are victims of discrimination.
The electric charges are the highest in the country. Wapda is selling electricity to KESC at a higher rate (Rs 3.70 / kWh) than to Discos (Rs 3.16 / kWh) and, to add to the woes of the already depressed consumers, KESC issues supplementary bills running into billions to consumers on flimsy grounds. All these also go towards the cost of producing goods in Karachi.
They said that Shaukat Aziz had announced a relief of 58 paisa only to the consumers of Wapda! Why not KESC?
Then the industries are infested with innumerable inspecting agencies. The industrialists in the meeting showed their frustration at the prevailing conditions and also pointedly referred to the law and order situation, which made their life and property insecure.
The industrialists made it amply clear that they could not add any more to the already high cost that exists and, as such, they would not participate in the course envisaged by the DG, Civil Defence.
Site industrialists also advised the DG Civil Defence to initiate the courses from Lahore and Faisalabad and then move to other cities since mammoth industrialisation is being done in Lahore, Faisalabad, Sheikhupura, etc.
The industrialists very vocally stressed that they are much better aware of the safety requirements and that every factory has a system of safety management in-built in their units.
Earlier, he also addressed members of Korangi Association of Trade and Industry (KATI). Chairman Zahid Hussain in his address of welcome said that industrialists and in particular the exporters were aware of the fact that after the enforcement of WTO Rules and Regulations after January 2005, they will have to face many problems one of them is to meet the requirements of ISO-18000 which calls for industrial safety management training of the employees.
He said that in Pakistan, there is a large number of SMEs that employ only skeleton staff. Therefore, they neither can spare any of their employees for such training nor can they pay the exorbitant course fee of Rs 30,000 per person which is being demanded for imparting Industrial Safety Management Training. He, therefore, suggested that the course should be designed keeping in view the problems and financial standing of SMEs.
He also suggested that it would be better to provide training to the employees of SMEs in their establishments so that they are not financially overburdened. However, he agreed that multinational companies could send their employees for the training to Civil Defence Institutes but emphasised that to persuade them awareness programs be designed.
Zahid paid tribute to Dr Muhammad Khawar Jameel, Director Civil Defence, for streamlining the inspections of Civil Defence as its Director because of which industrialists have no cause for complaint.
Past Chairman of Kati Farhan-ur-Rehman on this occasion made an introduction of his exhibition 'Financial Ideas 2004' which is to be held at Karachi Expo Centre on October 1 to 3, 2004.
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