Hundreds of former Karachi Port Trust (KPT) workers on Thursday caused a partial and temporary closure of the port's operations, asking the government to unbar the son quota regime in the trust. The protesting ex-workers staged a sit-in outside the KPT near Ghass Bandar, bringing vehicular traffic to a several-hour halt and suspending in-out cargo supplies from the harbour.
The charged agitation also caused the closure of all gate of the harbour's disrupting cargo handling inside the port in the East Wharf. "All four gates, we opened after some hours," said Lala Nazeer Khan who is leading the protest. He said that the former employees of KPT forcefully closed the four doors of the harbour including the gate no.17, PICT, export gate and gate no.1. "We later let the operations at the harbour resume," he added.
He alleged that the KPT appointed 2300 employees in five years but ignored the genuine and deserving sons of former employees. "The Prime Minister has announced the son quota and the Constitution of Pakistan binds the KPT to provide jobs to former employees' sons," he said.
He claimed that there were about 1200 such employees whose sons were eligible for jobs in the KPT. "We are fighting the case of 1200 former workers of KPT from the period 1996 to 2013," he said. "Protestors stepped back and allowed the harbour to resume its activities just after the authorities assured them of arranging their talks with the Chairman KPT today (Friday) to help end the deadlock," said Nazeer, adding that he and other workers would now put the case to the trust head.
He wondered that if there was no need of workers in the KPT as the trust continues to deny sons under quota regime for the last several years, then why did it employ 2300 workers in last five years. "When it comes to employment of son quota workers the KPT claims its employment pool is full but continues to make politically motivated appointments, which is illegal and unjust," he said.
He claimed that neither the Supreme Court nor the Election Commission of Pakistan's orders on jobs provision were applicable to the KPT son quota regime, adding that "the government, if it wants, can make appointments anytime under the son quota regime". Lala Nazeer Khan said that there were three petitions filed in the court against "illegal" appointments made during the tenure of federal ports and shipping minister Babar Khan Ghori.
He vowed that workers would continue their protest till the KPT heeds their demands and makea serious assurances to appoint workers under the son quota regime in the trust. "We workers built the KPT and gave four decades of our generations to contribute to the prosperity of the nation," he said, adding that "all of a sudden those people took over 'illegally' who had nothing to do with Pakistan's development". The protest which began at noon caused a traffic chaos for hours. The sit-in hit operations at the harbour as loaded import and export cargoes clogged the roads.
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