KARACHI, Aug 15: The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and other international financial institutions came under strong criticism at a programme organised by the Pakistan Progressive Workers’ Union at the Steel Mills in connection with the Independence Day.

Speaking on the occasion, labour leaders observed that these institutions were plundering the national exchequer directly and through multinational concerns, which they described as “the latest version of the East India Company”.

They expressed the concern that despite being a free and sovereign country, Pakistan had always remained in the tight grip of these financial institutions.

They also expressed their strong reservations over the dominance of feudal lords and armed forces in the country’s politics, saying that they ruled over the country ever since its inception although they played no role in the Pakistan Movement. “Today, the nation has to celebrate the country’s 60th Independence Day under the a state of dictatorship, which is threatening to impose emergency,” they pointed out with regret.

They accused the rulers of selling away the country’s essential and highly valuable economic assets at throwaway prices in the name of privatisation. Maintaining that such assets had been turned profitable by their employees after years of hard work, they said that disposing them of to local and foreign tycoons and multinationals in such a cruel manner was an anti-state policy.

The labour leaders reminded the rulers that the country’s workforce had been playing a vital role in strengthening the national economy and maintaining the country’s progress and prosperity, and vowed to do their utmost in protecting the interests of the country and workers.

On the occasion, they reaffirmed workers’ full support to the legal fraternity in its movement for the independence of the judiciary, and repeated the union’s stand that it was on account of his historic verdict on the privatisation of the Steel Mills that the chief justice of Pakistan was made non-functional. In this context, they also claimed that most of the victims of the May 12 violence in Karachi were the pro-CJ workers.

The labour leaders also recounted the achievements of the mills’ workers including an unprecedented strike during the martial law rule, development of Gulshan-i-Hadeed’s Phase-I and II and suspension of the PSM privatisation, saying that these achievements were made possible by the unity of the mills’ workers.

The leaders regretted that promotions of non-officer grade staff of the mills had been stopped for 15 years and the medical allowance for workers had drastically been curtailed. Besides, they noted, the expansion of Gulshan-i-Hadeed’s residential blocks was pending since long.

They demanded an immediate halt to the privatisation of state-owned concerns, repeal of the IRO-2002 and the Finance Bill-2006, lifting of ban on time-scale promotion, payment of attendance allowance and annual bonus and start of the expansion work of the Gulshan-i-Hadeed’s residential blocks.

Those who spoke at the programme included Nasir Mansoor and Shehla Rizwan of the Labor Party of Pakistan; President of the National Trade Union Federation Ghani Zaman Awan, Rahatullah, Mohammad Yar, Chaudhry Asghar, Iqbal Mohammad, Malik Ghulam Hussain and Ahmed Ali Lashari.—PPI