ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court will commence on Oct 1 hearing of a case involving a human tragedy in which 18 labourers died in Gujranwala district of silicosis, an incurable disease that cripples lungs.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk is seized with an application filed by human rights activists Usama Khawar and Yahya Farid Khwaja, members of the Public Lawyers’ Front (PLF).

The court has asked Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt and four provincial advocates general to appear in person on Oct 1.

Former chief justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani had taken suo motu notice of the deaths and sought reports from secretaries of the labour and human resource departments of Punjab, Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the district coordination officer (DCO) of Gujranwala.

In his report, the DCO confirmed 17 of the 18 deaths and identified the 16 factories where the deceased worked. He said the factories had yet to take precautionary measures even after the tragedy.

Nine of the labourers belonged to a single village. Safdar Ali of Chahal Khurd is the latest victim of the disease who died on May 22 this year.

The PLF activists have also brought to the court’s notice reports of 100 deaths caused by silicosis in Dera Ghazi Khan and other areas of Punjab over the past few years and said none of the victims’ heirs has been provided compensation, either by factory owners or by provincial government.

According to them, work at the factories involves feeding stones to grinding machines to break them into smaller pieces and to ultimately turn them into powder.

In the absence of any dust control mechanism, labourers mix powdered stone with boric acid with the help of shovels and then pack the mixture in bags with their hands or shovels for distribution. The shovelling of powdered silica and boric acid raises a lot of dust, causing the labourers to inhale massive amounts of dust.

Published in Dawn, September 14th, 2014