May 02, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1429

KARACHI, May 1: Like elsewhere around the globe, the May Day was observed in the city on Thursday during which various meetings and rallies were organised.

At most of these events, speakers called for an end to the exploitative labour laws in the country and to give due rights to the workers.

At one of the May Day meetings, speakers warned of the launching of a countrywide protest if ever-increasing inflation was not controlled and the privatisation policy was not scrapped immediately.

Various labour leaders at a meeting organised by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) urged the government to formulate a workable labour policy in consultation with the true representatives of the workers so that the lingering issues facing the workers could be resolved at the earliest.

The chief of the Sindh High Court Bar Association (SHCBA), retired justice Rasheed A. Razvi, called for restoration of all the judges, including the deposed chief justice, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, to the Nov-2 position and urged President Pervez Musharraf to immediately tender his resignation.

He demanded that a high-level investigation, led by Justice Chaudhry, be instituted to review the bungling that had been carried out in the name of privatisation.

Calling for an immediate halt to the military operation in Balochistan, he said that Sardar Akhtar Mengal and others arrested be released and all those people who had “vanished” or had been “picked up” by law-enforcement agencies must be recovered.

The chief of the Pakistan Labour Party, Farooq Tariq, said that prices of essential items like flour, cooking oil, vegetable ghee, sugar, petrol and diesel, etc be brought down for the relief of the masses.

He said that all those workers who had been relieved of their jobs during the past decade must be reinstated and sacking of workers under golden handshake or voluntary retirement be stopped.

Mr Tariq urged the abolishment of the contract system and said that all the workers be regularised and provided with the similar benefits and be covered under the social welfare schemes like old-age benefits, pensions, etc.

He also called for a high-level inquiry into the May 12 mayhem so that all those involved in the massacre and their patrons be brought to book and punished according to the law.

Rafiq Baloch urged the relevant authorities to ensure the implementation of labour laws, including the law of minimum wages, in all organisations. He said that anti-worker policies being pushed by the international financial institutions should not be implemented in the country.

Calling for an immediate implementation of the wage board award, Mr Baloch said that the issues facing the newspaper employees be solved on a priority basis.

Shehla Rizwan was of the view that workers associated with the informal sector and home-based workers be also recognised as workers and should be given similar benefits available to the people working in the formal sector.

Ghani Zaman, Mussarat Jabeen, Rab Nawaz, M. A. K. Azmati, Nadeem Rizvi, Ikhlaq Ahmad, Mohammad Waseem, Rahim Awan, Aziz-ur-Rehman, Mahboob Anjum and others also spoke.

‘Minimum wages be fixed’

A procession was also taken out from Fawwara Chowk near the Governor’s House, which after passing through various city streets arrived at the Karachi Press Club.

Speakers at the procession called for fixing the minimum wages of workers equal to the price of one tola of gold.

The participants were chanting slogans in support of workers’ rights. Some of the slogans were “Red salute to Chicago martyrs”, “abolish unemployment”, “long live workers’ solidarity” etc.

They were also carrying banners, some of which read “stop privatization” , “re-nationalise all the privatised organizations” , “land be distributed among landless farmers”, “better transport, education, health facilities for rural areas”, “workers be given representation in assemblies”, etc.