Pakistani workers upset over salary disparity with their Chinese counterparts, protests rock Karachi
Pakistan, which in the midst of nationwide protests against the French government now faces another protest against China for mistreatment of local Pakistani employees.
In Karachi, the financial capital of Pakistan, thousands of labourers on Wednesday (November 18) staged a protest against China, complaining about unequal wages compared to their Chinese compatriots.
According to a report published by The News International, Chinese staff recruited by the Punjab Mass Transit Authority for Orange Line Metro Train (OLMT) project received more salaries in comparison to their Pakistani employees.
This disparity in the income of the Pakistani staff has lowered the morale and to compound to the problem, there is a different grade system for the Chinese. Also, the Chinese staff are being paid in Yuan, and the Pakistani staff get their salaries in Pakistani rupees (PKR).
“On Wednesday, the value of 1 CNY against 1 PKR was equal to Rs 24.02. According to the data of the salaries of 93 Chinese working at the OLMT project, the Chinese staff is highly paid. If the salaries of Pakistani officials working on the same/equivalent seats are compared with those of Chinese staff, the Pakistan employees are getting mere peanuts. According to data, a Chinese-origin deputy chief executive officer/CFO/director with grade L2 is being paid 136,000 CNY per month which is equal to over Rs 36.26 lakh. There were three positions and all were filled with Chinese. No Pakistani was hired on this designation,” The News International stated.
The News International further gave data on salary disparity wherein 12 employees of Chinese origin working on the slot of train dispatcher/train crew are getting 57,000 CNY each, equal to Rs 10.36 lakh, however, Pakistans who are recruited for the same position are getting much lower salaries.
This unfair treatment has led to the Pakistani employees demanding a salary hike from the government and want the new salary structure at par with their Chinese counterparts.
Meanwhile, due the Wuhan virus, China has put a hold on projects under the $62 billion CPEC, a flagship project of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).
Also, the ongoing sectarian and political unrest in Pakistan along with the crippling economic and foreign debt limits faced by Pakistan has forced China to slow down and delay investments in future projects in Pakistan.
Also, there is growing resentment in Pakistan as the fear of being trapped in a mountain of debt to China is growing every day.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Planning and Development on Tuesday may have cleared the CPEC Authority Bill 2020 with a majority, however, the opposition parties have strongly opposed the bill. Former minister for planning Ahsan Iqbal said, “Creation of CPEC authority is superfluous and unnecessary,” he said. “Ministry of planning has discharged the role diligently and effectively in the past.”
Many in Pakistan have come to realise that the national debt of USD 80 billion on account CPEC is a recipe for disaster and a danger to the sovereignty of Pakistan. Many in Pakistan have also noted how China has entrapped other under-developed countries with its unreasonable debt trap policies.
The opposition parties who are up in arms against the Imran Khan Niazi government have now realised that the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) under the facade of Pakistan-China friendship is using CPEC project to turn Pakistan into a ‘Chinese colony’ and is using every opportunity to push the debt burden on Pakistan.
Dear Suriya, please spare us your wokeness and hypocrisy
Even though actor Suriya never misses a chance for on-screen activism against caste identities, documents reveal that he officially uses his community name, Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya. This apparent hypocrisy raises questions about the integrity of actors who virtue signal publicly while maintaining practices they denounce in private.
Heroes Practice What They Preach
It is true that there is little or no connection between the reel and the real lives of actors in the film industry. M.N. Nambiar, who played negative roles and came across as a cruel villain on-screen, was a righteous man who upheld the highest standards of morals and ethics in his real life.
But today, some actors consider themselves heroes both on and off-screen, virtue signalling their wokeness by mouthing dialogues in front of a camera or whenever they get hold of a mike, turn out to be hypocrites of the highest order. What they preach and do directly contradicts who they are and what they do in real life.
Suriya is one such fine actor in this league.
In his recent release “Soorarai Pottru”, a mischievous distortion of the story of Captain G.R. Gopinath, Suriya who is shown as an ‘anti-caste’ and a ‘socialist’ capitalist (God knows what that is!) utters the dialogue “I want to break the cost barrier and the damn caste barrier too!”.
There is nothing wrong with this dialogue per se. However, we need to call out Suriya for uttering this line.
Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya
Actor Suriya Sivakumar is not only an actor but is also a producer. He runs two companies – one ‘2D Entertainment Private Limited’ and the other ‘Rakkia Cinemas Private Limited and is one of the directors of both the companies. The film “Soorarai Pottru” was produced under his ‘2D Entertainment’.
In both these companies, actor Suriya’s name is recorded in the documents as “Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya” while his brother Karthi Sivakumar who is one of the directors of Rakkia Cinemas does not have his community attached to his name.
So, Rakkia ‘Gounder’ Sivakumar Suriya is a producer of Soorarai Pottru in which actor Suriya flirts with ‘EVR-ism’.
Starting a production company and making movies through that company is a profession and is no crime. Having one’s community name as surname is also not a crime as no legal book prohibits one from doing so. But what is criminal, utterly dishonest and morally wrong is to mint money by claiming to ‘eradicate caste’ on screen while clandestinely having one’s caste name behind the scenes.
For someone who has of late been leaving no opportunity to radiate wokeness espousing ‘social justice’ and standing against ‘Manu NEEThi’, it would do himself good to walk the talk. Else, it is better if one doesn’t do the talk and just goes about his work.
Now it would be easy to brush it off saying ‘Rakkia Gounder’ is his grandfather’s name and not his. He could have simple mentioned ‘Rakkia’ while registering. Surya could have simply registered his name in the records of his company without mentioning the caste name. That way, it would be justified if he takes these politically correct positions against caste in public.
Instead, putting ‘Rakkia Gounder Sivakumar Suriya’ behind the screen while shouting ‘I want to break the caste barrier’ on the screen is a leaf taken out of EVR’s playbook.
This is not a writeup against Suriya. He is definitely a good actor with great acting skills that spills on to his real life. It is his choice to continue doing movies through his production house registered with his community name while flaunting his wokeness in audio launches and Agaram Foundation events. But what is important is for people to see through the hypocrisy and the double-standards of these stars who take fashionable positions while being morally bankrupt.