Although the recent earthquake was only in the northern part of Pakistan and did not damage the buildings or plants in Karachi, the leather industry there has not been unscathed. Gulzar Firoz, who has been chairman of the Pakistan Tanners Association for several years and still is the chairman of the Treatment Plant Society, told the press that all the tanneries which employed labour from NWFP in North and Azad Kashmir, the part of Kashmir which is controlled by Pakistan, have returned to their homes compelling the tanneries to cut production.
For the most part, this represents unskilled workers mostly employed in areas such as shaving and feeding the drums. The skilled labour is mostly from Karachi and Punjab. There are about three hundred tanneries in the Korangi Industrial Area. ‘Out of 90% tannery workers belonging to Punjab, Mansehra, Hazara etc, 50% have returned to their affected home areas. Even Chowkidars and drivers from Mansehra, Hazara and Muzaffarbad have gone back’, said Gulzar Firoz.
