NLF leader among 13 arrested protesters released by court

A judicial magistrate on Wednesday ordered the release of a leader of the National Labor Federation (NLF) and a dozen other people arrested by police for protesting against layoffs and the non-payment of wages of workers at the Lucky Knits factory.

Police presented NLF Karachi president Khalid Khan and 12 workers of the factory before the Central district’s judicial magistrate and sought their remand.

Police contended that the protesters had violated the novel coronavirus lockdown and resorted to violence.

The attorney representing the workers argued that the workers were protesting peacefully for their pending salaries and layoffs, but instead of fulfilling their demands, the factory management implicated them in a false case.

The judicial magistrate, after listening to the arguments, ordered the release of the protesters and directed police to quash the case against them.

Following their release, Jamaat-e-Islami’s Karachi chief Hafiz Naeem ur Rehman condemned the police action against the protesting workers and questioned the Sindh government’s policy regarding the factories laying off their staffers during the COVID-19 crisis despite a ban.

Khan thanked the courts and said that such tactics of implication could not deter the workers from demanding their rights.

He said the factory management first thrashed the workers using their private security and then called in police to arrest them.

A large number of NLF and JI leaders converged on the courts at the time of the hearing. They lauded the court’s decision and demanded the government to take strict action against the employers laying off their staff.

Jamaat-e-Islami’s former secretary general Zahid Askari said that due to the policies of the government, the life of a common person had already become worse.

On the one hand, he said, people were living hand to mouth and, on the other hand, the employers were sacking them from jobs. He said that Eid was just around the corner yet the workers were not paid their salaries.