They start arriving early every morning round 6am. They are old men now, most sporting white beards and wearing that trademark white cap. Five or six of their colleagues have spent the night under the shamiana outside the Karachi Press Club. The morning shift is now coming to >

to the sit-in, now in its 51st day. They are the workers of Port Qasim who began work there in the 80s. The tasks they performed have now been outsourced to a Chinese firm, and they claim they haven’t been paid for five months. Their demand: to be paid their dues and to get >

the same privileges as workers at the Karachi Port.

These old men, most of them from Bajaur, display the steadfastness and determination of old school trade unionists. They are disciplined, peaceful and united. They also display the amusing stubbornness of older people : >