March 31, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22, 1429

KARACHI, March 30: Spea-kers at a gathering of workers and labour leaders here on Sunday strongly criticised the privatisation policy and contract system, and demanding restoration of all basic facilities like pension, old-age benefits, social security, etc. which were being enjoyed by workers across the country before the implementation of the privatisation policy.

The event was organised for the oath-taking of the newly-elected office-bearers of the National Trade Union Federation. President of the Sindh High Court Bar Association Justice (retd) Rasheed A. Razvi was the chief guest.

The participants vowed to continue their struggle for the rights of workers and resist the exploitative policies pursued by capitalists that had weaken the national economy. They urged the new government to do away with the privatisation of national assets and take steps to reinstate more than 800,000 workers rendered jobless in the name of downsizing and rightsizing over the past few years.

They called for instituting an inquiry into the handing over of profit-making state institutions to private sector at throwaway prices, adds PPI.

The gathering also demanded reinstatement of all deposed judges, and called for bringing an end to feudalism and introducing a true and sustainable democracy in Pakistan.

They described the nine years of dictatorship as the “worst era in the history of the country”, saying that it was responsible for the destruction of the national economy and social infrastructure, besides the increased poverty, dearness and unemployment.

They termed IMF, WTO and World Bank “the East India Companies of the modern times”, and said that these financial institutions had enslaved the third world countries, like Pakistan.

The speakers, including Nouman Qadir of the Awami Mazahimat, Shehla Rizwan of the Labour Party of Pakistan, Karachi, NTUF President Rafiq Baloch, General-Secretary Ghani Zaman and Deputy General-Secretary Nasir Mansoor, deplored these organisations for dictating their terms to Pakistan on economic and political affairs, and alleged that successive governments over a long period just played as subservient to these organisations.

It was on the dictation of these organisations that state-run industries, corporations and institutions were being sold at throwaway prices to favourites in the name of privatisation, they alleged.

They recalled that when the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, had ruled against the privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills, the beneficiaries of the privatisation started hatching conspiracies against the CJ and other judges. However, they added, most of these conspiracies had since been foiled through the heroic struggle launched by lawyers and supported by civil society organisations and public at large.

They welcomed Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani’s decision to lift the ban on trade unions and students union, withdrawal of IRO-2002 and removal of all curbs on the media.

Earlier, Justice Razvi administered oath to the new office-bearers of the NTUF.