President, PM call for protection of labourers’ rights

President Dr Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PPP Co-Chairman Asif Ali Zardari in their separate messages on International Labour Day have paid rich tribute to the labourers for their hard work and stressed upon protection of their rights, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Monday.

President’s message

The President in a statement said this year we are celebrating Labour Day with the resolve to reaffirm our commitment to the dignity of labour and pay tribute to the valiant and heroic struggle of the workers for their fundamental rights.

He said the labour force is backbone of our economy and it is highly essential to take steps for protection of their rights by strictly enforcing the labour laws to discourage unfair labour practices.

PM’s message

The Prime Minister in his message expressed the committment to improve the working and living conditions of workers and to supplement their welfare by providing them better housing, education, and health facilities.

He said keeping in view the high inflation rates and other economic challenges, the government has increased the minimum monthly wages of workers from 17,500 rupees to 25,000 rupees.

The Prime Minister said the government has also embarked upon programmes of vocational training and skills development to enable workers to get their due share in job markets within and outside the country.

Bilawal’s message

Foreign Minister Bilawal issued a statement on Sunday in which he stated that his party would represent workers in all elected entities in accordance with its manifesto.

Bilawal stated that if the PPP is given a mandate in the upcoming general elections, it will implement initiatives such as the Benazir Mazdoor Card for workers across the country, as it has done in Sindh.

Bilawal said that during the regime of Imran Khan, the oppression of workers, farmers and salaried class had never happened before in the history of the country. 

Imran Khan’s policies favoring his ATMs and rich classes have set new records of inflation, unemployment and poverty in Pakistan, the consequences of which are now being felt by the entire nation, he said adding that PPP is struggling to save the poor people from the destruction unleashed by Imran Khan regime.

The PPP Chairman said that it was an open history that the voice and struggle for the rights of the working class in this country and their implementation started after the establishment of the PPP.

For the first time in the country, the labour policy was issued and the rights of trade unions were introduced in the country by former Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on February 10, 1972, he said.

Bilawal said that former Prime Minister Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto took revolutionary measures for the rights and protection of workers during her shortest period of government. Awami government led by former President Asif Ali Zardari launched the Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) and gave free shares to the employees of national institutions while whopping increases were made in the salaries and pensions.

He said that the People’s Government of Sindh has enacted legislations like tripartite labor policy, Home Based Women Workers Act and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH). Making landless women farmers owners of their agricultural lands and lifting lakhs of families out of poverty through union council level anti-poverty program is also a distinction of the People’s government.

The PPP Chairman urged the labor and working class people of the country to join the PPP and make it more powerful so that it gives and protects their rights and reiterated his determination that the Party will not retreat even an inch from the mission of safeguarding the rights of the working classes of Pakistan and their prosperity.

Asif Zardari’s message

Former President Asif Ali Zardari said in a message on the occasion of the Labour Day that the PPP was a party of the workers and it would continue to protect the rights of labourers.

Zardari said that the founding chairman of the PPP, Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto always stood by the workers in their struggle for labourer’s rights and rectified the injustices meted out to them through labour reforms.

He said that today due to the worst inflation, the working class was suffering from economic constraints. He said that the government of the PPP had made the labourers partners in the government-owned industrial enterprises under the Benazir Employees’ Stock Option Scheme.

The former President expressed the Party’s resolve to continue solving the problems of the working class on a priority basis after returning to power. He said that the PPP was adhered to the manifesto of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

Asif Zardari said that Chairman PPP, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari following the footsteps of his grandfather and mother, would support the workers’ rights.

He asked the labour force of the country to support Bilawal Bhutto Zardari so that their problems could be solved and they achieve their rights.