August 29, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-us-Saani 19,1423

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ISLAMABAD, Aug 28: The draft labour policy, 2002, is ready for quite some time and has accordingly been referred to the federal cabinet for approval, sources in the Ministry of Labour told Dawn.

Similarly, the draft industrial relations ordinance, 2002, which is to replace the earlier piece of law enforced by Air Marshal Noor Khan when he was the Governor of West Pakistan in 1969, has also been finalized and vetted by the law department, the sources said.

The draft labour policy was finalized after tripartite dialogues between the representatives of employees, employers and the ministry of labour during the tenure of late Omar Asghar Khan as labour minister, the sources said.

They pointed out that none of the successive governments was able to shape up the labour policy and the draft industrial relations ordinance due to pressure from the industrialist members of parliament and thus it was high time that the military government during whose tenure these have been finalized should be enforced.

It may be recalled that Labour Minister Owais Ghani had expressed confidence in an interview last month that the labour policy would be enforce before an elected government takes over.

However, it appears that neither the new labour policy nor the industrial relations ordinance would be enforced before elections, the sources said.

The cabinet has not considered the draft labour policy although it holds meetings almost every Wednesday for the reason that it wanted its approval when all the four provincial governors are present in the meeting which is not expected to take place due to the political activities going on at present.