KARACHI, Nov 14: Speakers at a meeting here on Thursday termed the recently- announced Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO) 2002 anti-worker and demanded that it be withdrawn.

At a workers meeting, organized by the National Labour Federation and attended by representatives of many trade union organizations, they said in the meantime the IRO 1969 be restored.

The meeting also formed a committee, headed by a senior trade union leader, S. P. Lodhi, to evaluate the situation and formulate its recommendations on the issues being faced by the workers.

They said under the IRO 2002 the powers of the labour courts, the National Industrial Relations Commission and other labour appellate forums, etc, had been curtailed. Even the registration of representative bodies of workers had been made difficult.

The meeting also demanded that a judicial inquiry, headed by a high court judge, be ordered into the murder of Pasha Ahmad Gul and the real people behind the murder be arrested.

They also demanded that the heirs of the late leader be paid a compensation of Rs2.5 million so his family could rehabilitate itself.

S. P. Lodhi, Habibuddin Junaidi, Saleem Raza, Shaukat Ali, Mohammed Islam, Fareed Awan, Liaquat Sahi, Shaikh Majeed, Haji Yunus, Mohammed Mursaleen, Malik Rafiq, Zafar Khan and others also spoke at the meeting.