LAHORE, Jan 2: Punjab Labour Minister Muhammad Tariq has said that the government will ensure increase in the wages of the skilled and semi-skilled workers and the supervisory staff under the provisions of the Minimum Wages Ordinance 1961.

Speaking at a meeting of the industrial workers and trade union representatives organized by the All Pakistan Federation of Trade Unions at the Bakhtiar Labour Hall here on Wednesday, the minister said that instructions had already been issued to all the labour officers in the province to ensure enforcement of the minimum wages law.

He said that the government was formulating a new labour policy besides enforcing new labour laws by combining the existing laws for reducing the number of the same. The government would also improve the arrangements for free medical facilities for workers and their families, education for their children along with provision of books and uniforms to them and residential families for them to ensure increase in industrial output along with improvement in industrial relations.

The minister said that good industrial relations were necessary for ridding the country of heavy foreign loans through the increased exports of quality industrial products at competitive prices.

International Labour Organisation Director Dr Zafar Shaheed stressed the need for bringing the labour laws in conformity with the ILO Conventions ratified by the Pakistan government. He said that the ILO Conventions and the United Nations Human Rights Charter were in conformity with the principles of Islam.