Mapping Labour Unions in Pakistan Pakistan signed the IMF Structural Adjustment Programme in 1988- originally signed by the interim government and imposed on successive elected governments. Privatisation was a critical component of the programme. The later governments, particularly that of Nawaz Sharif’s moved for rapid privatisation of public sector entities- including manufacturing enterprises, nationalized banks, telecommunication sector- and also deregulated private industry. While the unions resisted this move vehemently, there have also been plant level union-government agreements on industrial restructuring. There were negotiations between the government and enterprise based trade unions, leading to an agreement with the federal government that gave workers of privatizing enterprises an option of retaining their jobs for at least one year after privatization or opting for retirement with a pension. 13 Despite the damage it caused to the workers, Pakistan’s privatisation programme was said to involve less labour unrest and better compensation packages in part because employers could negotiate with legally recognized, workplace elected trade unions officials. Post-’90s, a neoliberal economic agenda centralised on private capital, privatisation and deregulation of the economy promoting exports has been accompanied by a decreased state capacity in securing workers’ rights and promoting workers’ organisations. Today, the trade unions in Pakistan stand disenfranchised, fragmented, and under-represented. While a list of internal and external challenges highlighted by trade unions and allies in interviews done for this study have been presented in a separate section, the next section presents a brief overview of the trade union density in Pakistan. 1.2. Numerical Strength of Trade Unions While there has been no official information on the number of trade unions density in Pakistan, there is consensus that it is as low as it was at the time of independence, though there have been periods of increased membership. At the time of independence, for a population of 32 million, there were seventy­five registered organizations in Pakistan having 58,150 members and the majority of them were in West Pakistan. 14 This can be compared with 1,725 13. Candland, Christopher,"New Social and New Political Unionism: Labour, Industry, and the State in India and Pakistan" Global Solidarity Dialogue at http:// globalsolidarity.antenna.nl/candland.html 14. Karamat Ali cited in Labour Movement in West Pakistan 1947-1958: A Perspective on Punjab at https://gcwus.edu.pk/wp-content/uploads/1.-Labour-Movement-in-West­Pakistan.pdf 8