The Impact Of Workplace Risks On Occupational Injuries In Pakistan: A Pre - And Post-18th Amendment Analysis

Abstract

The Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan, passed by the National Assembly on April 8, 2010, introduced significant changes to the country's governance structure. One of the most notable features of this amendment was the devolution of self-governance, legislative authority, and financial autonomy to the provinces. This transfer of responsibilities and powers from the federal to provincial governments had a profound impact on various ministries. Notably, ministry such as Labor market were devolved and placed under the jurisdiction of the provinces. Pre-Eighteenth Amendment, the labor department operated under Federal Government. This research study comparing[1] the two regimes pre and post devolution is based on both descriptive and empirical analysis.The primary objective of this study to evaluate the impact of unsafe working environment on occupational injuries both pre and post 18^th amendment across provinces of Pakistan. For this purposes study use data from period of 2008 to 2021, gathered from various sources, including annual yearbooks, Labor Force Surveys, budget documents and Economic Survey of Pakistan. Additionally, data in the variable "unsafe working environment" was generated through the labor force survey questionnaire. Discriptive result shows that post amendment, occupational injury increases in Pakistan as well as provinces. This rate  in Punjab is more comparative other provinces i.e Sindh, KPK and Balochistan. The empirical  analysis shows that post devolution occupational injury increased in three provinces from 19.5%, 4.5% and 3.87% in Balochistan, Punjab and Sindh respectively. But this impact was statistically insignificant in KPK. This study in context of post devolution concluded that the occupational injuries in Punjab and Sindh significantly affect compare to Balochistan and KPK. Based on the findings the study provides the following crucial policies to the government and policy makers. Policy makers may adopt Occupational Health and safety policy to reduce the occupational injuries and carry out a regular evaluation in order to identify any drop in efficiency, to judge the quality of the design of this policy and their implementation.