Labour rights in Naya Pakistan Millions of people in Pakistan are working on measly wages and in unsafe conditions The writer is an academic and researcher. He is also the author of Development, Poverty, and Power in Pakistan, available from Routledge Labour exploitation remains a major cause for the glaring disparities that we see around the world, including in our own country. Millions of people in Pakistan are working on measly wages and in unsafe conditions. Despite lip service by those in power, labour abuses remain rife across our urban and rural areas. The dismal ground realities confronting our poor workforce are caused by a paucity of state regulatory capacity and the perpetuation of market-led policies which give precedent to profit maximisation by local and transnational business interests, instead of ensuring provision of decent work opportunities for the working classes.