ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS) in collaboration with Oxfam organized a two-day consultation on National Action Plan (NAP) on Business and Human Rights here on Tuesday.
The consultation aims to engage the legislators, Provincial Policy makers in the domain of human rights to generate debate concerning legal policy dimension of Business and Human rights.
Federal Minister for Human Rights Mumtaz Ahmad Tarar was the Chief Guest of the inaugural ceremony of conference. Minister underscored that the country’s sixty-million strong work force continued to face significant problems, such as salaries below the legal minimum, obstacles to trade union formation, unsafe work conditions, approximately two to three million children in the workforce and women earning significantly less for the same work as men.
One aspect of human rights was related to tax responsibility of business enterprises which was the vital source of state to deliver human rights. The minister ensured his support demanded by the stakeholders in legislative matters concerning the subject, he added.
Key Note Speaker, Human Rights expert I.A. Rehman shared this thorough insight highlighting the need for enforcing and implementing the guiding principles for NAP on Business & Human Rights similarly establishing few new principles for effective monitoring of the state of play regarding it.
Executive Director PIPS, Zafarullah Khan shared his welcome remarks and emphasized on the importance of this consultation in national context.
Provincial representatives from all the four provinces shared their remarks and current situation in their respective provinces regarding Business and Human Rights.
Provincial representatives included Secretary Human Rights Punjab Asim Iqbal, Secretary Law Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Asghar Ali, Secretary Human Rights Balochistan Mohammad Asghar and Secretary Human Rights Sindh Tanveer Qureshi.
Member National Assembly Shehryar Afridi & Sajid Nawaz also highlighted the role of Parliament in ensuring and protecting NAP on Business & Human Rights in Pakistan.
Programme manager on National Action Plan on Business and human rights Asim Jaffry said, Tax was also an issue of good governance and responsible business practice. There are immediate and meaningful steps companies can take to improve the impact of their tax behavior in Pakistan where they are doing business.
