Pakistan, May 2 -- On May 1, Pakistan's political class did what it does best: gathered under banners, made promises, posed for photos, and went home. Meanwhile, the country's workforce, all the way from brick kiln loaders in Kasur to domestic workers in Lahore's Defence to garment stitchers in Korangi, went back to work. Without insurance. Without protection. Without rights.

That over 12,000 bonded labourers were rescued in Punjab in just one year should have been front-page news in any serious democracy. Instead, it suffers in oblivion, reduced to a footnote in speeches about "dignity of work." Entire sectors (agriculture, brick kilns, and domestic labour) run on a machinery of modern-day slavery that the state continues to ignore.

Th...