Imran Khan orders to lift ban on domestic workers at ‘elite’ clubs in Pakistan

Dubai: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has lifted a ban on domestic workers entering leisure clubs around the country.

The announcement was made by Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi on Wednesday.

Afridi, @ShehryarAfridi1, tweeted: “Symbols of elitism and colonial mind-set will be removed. PMIK has ordered to remove the ban on entry of maids/servants in elite clubs i.e. starting from Isb [Islamabad] club. Rather we should have been thankful to them for carrying our weights. Abolish boundaries made in name of wealth, colour etc.”

Prior to the decision, signboards restricting maids’ and other domestic helpers’ entry could be seen at the gates of ‘elite’ leisure clubs.

Khan passed the order while chairing a meeting on the Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Plus status of Pakistan, according to The News International, an English language newspaper in Pakistan.

During the meeting, the premier also directed authorities concerned to eradicate bonded labour in Pakistan and urged that children from low income backgrounds must be educated, according to Dawn, an English daily in the country.

Afridi’s post got a number of reactions from netizens, with over 1,500 retweets and over 6,000 likes so far.

Many of the replies stating “good job” and “good step” appreciated the move, while some netizens took the opportunity to shed light on issues surrounding discrimination in the country.

Twitter user Muddasir Hanjra, @juttonha wrote: “… Please get us out of colonial mind-set and it’s deeply rooted in our institutions too.”

Whereas tweep @Reni_rhe9 posted a picture showing a domestic worker along with a family and wrote: “If you don’t want to share food with them, please don’t bring them to the restaurant.”

However, there were those who deemed the issue less important than other matters in the country.

User @HAAQ786, replying to Afridi’s tweet, posted: “Oh come on man we weren’t expecting this from you. We have major outstanding issues sort them out first then by all means you can tweet on these issues as well. #BringTheLootedMoneyBack.”

A hot topic

Recently domestic workers’ rights in Pakistan have been a topic of concern. This month, a 16-year-old house maid was brutally abused and murdered by her employers in Lahore, which led to an outcry on social media. Subsequently, #JusticeForUzma trended on Twitter.

However, this was not an isolated case. Over the years, a number of abuse cases involving domestic workers have surfaced in the country.