FAISALABAD, May 1: The labour community is the backbone of our economy and the government was committed to protect their legitimate rights without any political consideration.

This was stated by Punjab Minister for Communication and Works Chaudhry Zaheeruddin while speaking at a function organized here on Thursday in connection with the May Day.

The minister said the labour community had played an important role for the development of the country at the cost of their own welfare. “We cannot forget them and will continue our efforts for their progress and prosperity,” he said.

Enumerating the steps taken by the government for the welfare of the labour class, he mentioned construction of labour colonies in different parts of the country. Similarly, schools had also been established to provide quality education to the children of industrial workers in addition to provide them free medical treatment. In this connection, he mentioned the construction of a 300-bed hospital in Madina Town here.

Centres: The Punjab government is considering a proposal to set up rehabilitation centres for beggar children in major cities.

This was stated by Dr Faiza Asghar, the adviser to the Punjab government on children rights, during her visit to the Borstal Jail here.

She expressed satisfaction over the performance of the borstal jail and directed the jail authorities to concentrate on the rehabilitation of juvenile criminals.

phone exchange: The Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited has withdrawn the separate city code for Chak Jhumra directly linking its exchange with Faisalabad’s main network.

A spokesman of the PTCL said on Thursday a separate city code (04655) was allocated to make long distance calls to Chak Jhumra.

However, now this area had been directly linked with Faisalabad and long distance callers would have to use Faisalabad code (041) to make calls to Chak Jhumra, he said.

Meanwhile, the six-digit telephone numbers of the Chak Jhumra Exchange have also been changed to seven digits with prefix 776. The last four digits of the telephone numbers will however remain the same.—APP