Business and Human Rights: Opportunities and Challenges session held at IBA, Karachi.

Department of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts, Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Karachi and the Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) organized a panel discussion titled Business and Human Rights: Opportunities and Challenges at the IBA, Karachi main campus.

The panel comprised of former President of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and former advisor to Chief Minister Sindh on investment, Zubair Motiwala; visiting faculty of law at IBA and human rights activist who also works with social movements, Abira Ashfaq; former Joint Director, Labour Department of Sindh, Government of Pakistan, Gulfam Nabi Memon; and Joint Director, PILER, Zulfiqar Shah. Chair of Social Sciences and Liberal Arts Department at IBA Karachi, Dr. Faiza Mushtaq introduced the session.

The session sought to explore the increasing global focus on ethics in trade. Pakistan is particularly at the center of this debate as it holds a prominent position in agriculture and textile value chain exports. Pakistan has also been granted the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP+) status starting in 2014 that allows tariff free exports to Europe in return for compliance to a set of international treaties and conventions, related to human rights and labour rights. The discussion particularly focused on the working conditions, health and occupational safety hazards, labour and workplace laws and the issue of low wages in the country, among other aspects related to participation of Pakistani labour in global trade.

The discussion also steered towards the processes adopted to ensure compliance to rights standards and best practices at workplace and whether such mechanisms were effective enough or not.

The diverse set of panelists shared their expertise on the subject matter. Explaining the significance of GSP+ for Pakistan, Mr. Shah noted that while it has raised export revenues, the status is symbolic of the emerging reality that trade is not just associated with producing and selling items, it is now also linked with the provision of human rights and labour rights in businesses. "The world is now looking at the business sector to ensure human rights are protected at their workplaces and daily operations" he added.

Mr. Shah also stated that Pakistan stands on the sixth position when it comes to labour bondage and the 2012 Baldia fire tragedy, repeated fire accidents and the recent incident at Clifton's Marina Tower, which killed six...