Lahore, December 09: The government and the trade community must act expeditiously and in concert to ensure compliance with the GSP Plus conditionalities if they want to derive due benefit from the facilities offered by the European Union.  This was the consensus at the second consultation on GSP + organized by HRCP at its secretariat the other day.

The meeting was briefed by senior economic analyst, Nasir Jamal, on the steps so far taken by the government and the trade chambers for the implementation of the GSP Plus terms.  He appreciated the work done by both the government and the textile exporters but he stressed the need for greater collaboration between them not only at the national and provincial levels but also at the district level, as no side alone could accomplish the task of complying with the GSP Plus conditionalities. He also pleaded for efforts to mobilise the industrial labour to back the official-trade drive.

The labour representative launched  a strong attack on the government and employers both for denying workers relief from exploitation. They said the trade unions were being suppressed, wages were low (the workers were denied the minimum wage and EOBI was not fair in working out their pensions), and that labour would play its due role in realizing GSP Plus goals  if their rights were respected.

The representative of the Federation of Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Lahore Chamber of Commerce, Jamil Naz, complained of lack of integrity and seriousness  all around. This coupled with corruption in all fields of life and wrong development priorities was depriving Pakistan of its due share in the economic field.

While the meeting agreed  that it was in Pakistani people’s own interest to implement the 27 international conventions on human rights, labour rights, environment and corruption, Raza Ali, an authority on urban and social development , pointed out the need for Pakistan to fully subscribe to the 27 conventions, adopt domestic legislation to implement the treaties that were ratified and seek cooperation of trade/ industry sections that were not in the line of GSP Plus beneficiaries.

Dr. Mehdi Hasan, senior professor and human rights activist stated that success in meeting the GSP Plus goals, like other issues in the country, dependent on good governance and political parties’ ability to establish a secular order that alone could enable the state to defend people’s rights.

While welcoming the participants the HRCP Secretary-General I.A. Rehman focused on HRCP’s interest in persuading the authorities and the businessman to derive due advantages  form their GSP Plus status as apart from the condition ofimplementation of the 27 rights conventions, pursuit of an economic programme that promised an improvement in people’s living standard was a human rights cause.

The participants agreed with the proposition that success on the GSP Plus front required public support that could only be secured througha strong people’s awareness programme and an amicable resoluction of employers employees;differences.

The meeting was attended by subject specialists, labour representatives and civil society activists.

Zohra Yusuf
Chairperson