ISLAMABAD, June 25: People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPP), Punjab, has criticized the industrial policy announced by Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and termed it anti-labour.

Talking to newsmen after the PPP Executive Council, Punjab meeting here on Wednesday, the Punjab PPP president and opposition leader in the provincial assembly, Qasim Zia, Rana Aftab and Naveed Chaudhry said earlier, labour inspectors were responsible for monitoring the implementation of labour laws and maintaining the record of workers in industrial units. By abolishing labour inspectors, the government has given freehand to industrialists to hire and fire employees and violate labour laws, they said. They were of the view that this policy was industrialist-friendly and there was nothing in it for the welfare of labour class.

They said all trade unions while rejecting the new labour laws had started consultations to lodge a protest against the new industrial policy.

The PPP leaders announced support for the All Pakistan Clerks Association’s call to observe black day on July 10.

They condemned registration of “false cases” against husband of MPA Farzana Raja and father of MPA Khalid Wattoo and termed it a part of “political victimization”.

The PPP leaders vowed to continue their struggle against the Legal Framework Order (LFO) and said the party had started mobilizing the people on the issue.

Rana Aftab said the party was arranging three public meetings on June 28, 29 and 30 in Pakpattan, Gakhar and Sahiwal, respectively.

Qasim Zia said it was wrong to say that the LFO was not a provincial matter, as it was a threat to the provincial autonomy. He said police order and powers to governor to dissolve provincial assembly under the LFO was an encroachment in the provincial autonomy. Moreover, he said, by presenting a resolution in support of the LFO and uniformed president, the ruling party itself had brought the matter in the provincial assembly.

The PPP leaders once again demanded that the popular and genuine leadership should be allowed to come back to the country and play their role.

They said Gen Aziz’s recent statement that there should be no politics in uniform showed that there were elements in army who opposed army’s interference in political matters.

On Greater Thal Canal issue, they said no project should be launched without seeking consensus of the provinces.

They also termed Gen Musharraf’s visit to the US complete failure. The PPP leaders said the money paid by Pakistan for F-16s was still outstanding against the US and the government was wrongly projecting that the amount had been adjusted in the price of soyabean oil or wheat. By not taking any member of the Jamali cabinet to the US, Gen Musharraf had expressed no-confidence in the Jamali government, they said.