July 11, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 10, 1424

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ISLAMABAD, July 10: Pakistan People’s Party Deputy Secretary-General Senator Mian Raza Rabbani on Thursday condemned a ban on trade unions in the State Bank and other banking institutions.

“This is an anti-labour order and is in continuation of the anti-people policies be-ing pursued by government,” he said in a statement issued here.

He said the labour unions had become a victim of the blanket cover that the government was seeking for the Legal Framework Order as the State Bank of Pakistan Act, 1956, included in the sixth schedule, was one of the laws that were being sought to be validated without the scrutiny of parliament.

He said the PPP had opposed the LFO on the grounds that a number of laws had been promulgated that affected the economic, political and fundamental rights of the people.

Those included the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 and the Removal from Services Order, he said.

The SBP management had passed the order on the basis of a short order by the National Industrial Relations Commission, he said and added that it was a question of law wea-ther the NIRC had the jurisdiction to decide the competence of the ordinance amending the act.

The management had acted in haste without waiting for the period of appeal to lapse by banning the unions and freezing their accounts, he said.

The assured the workers of the party’s support in their struggle for the restoration of their trade union and economic rights.

He said the matter would be raised in parliament.