KARACHI, May 16: Speakers at a meeting on Monday urged the workers to forge unity and wage a long struggle so that they could get their due rights which were not being given to them by imperialistic forces. They were speaking at a workers meeting, organized by the Labour Education Foundation, in Landhi. Labour Party of Pakistan chief Nisar Shah, Ghani Zaman of the National Trade Union Federation, Nasir Mansoor, Akhi Bahadur, Shakeel Malik, Ali Hasan, and others also spoke.

They said since independence the country had been ruled by the landed aristocracy, agents of capitalists, military and civil bureaucracy and all of them had done nothing to improve the status of the workers, who will have to follow the footsteps of South American workers of Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina and bring out leadership from the workers.

They said workers were forced to work for over 16 hours due to the contract system, while cruel laws like IRO 2002 had been imposed to snatch what ever few rights were being enjoyed by the workers.

A drama “Pocket union” was also staged on the occasion.