PESHAWAR: The May Day passed off here on Saturday without the usual activities due to the pandemic-induced restrictions.

Politicians, labourers and traders issued separate statements urging the government to increase the minimum wage and resolve the labourers’ problems.

Awami National Party central president Asfandyar Wali Khan suggested that the minimum wage be fixed at Rs25,000.

He said the escalating inflation had increased the problems of labourers manifold.

Mr Asfandyar said poverty had forced the people to commit suicide in desperation.

Expressing serious concern about the growing prices of essential commodities, he said the poor were struggling to live life with honour.

No functions held to mark the day due to pandemic

The ANP chief said the lockdowns imposed to stem the spread of Covid-19 had made the life of the poor people, including labourers, extremely miserable.

He said the government wasn’t interested in addressing the problems of labourers and workers.

Mr Asfandyar insisted that the International Monetary Fund managed the country’s financial affairs and had no sympathies for the poor people.

Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party provincial president Mohammad Humayun Khan expressed concern about the continued ban on trade unions and said the government was neither taking interest in resolving the workers’ problems nor was it allowing them to raise voice for rights.

He said former prime minister and PPP founder Zilfikar Ali Bhutto had enabled workers to raise voice against injustices committed against them by industrialists and capitalists but during the current situation, no one was there to help the poor people.

“The Peoples Party has always worked for the welfare of poor workers by providing them with jobs and shelter but other political parties have never bothered to bring any positive change in their life,” he said.

Meanwhile, labour minister Shaukat Yousufzai said the government was committed to the development of labouers and protecting their legal rights.

He said the government had planned to start registration of all labouers in order to resolve their problems.

“The workers should extend cooperation to the labour department to make the process of registration a success,” he said.

Meanwhile, members of the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Union held a meeting at the Iqbal Labour Complex.

Provincial chairman of the union Haji Mohammad Iqbal chaired the meeting.

The participants demanded of the federal government to fill around 17,000 vacancies in the Peshawar Electric Supply Company to ease the staff members’ heavy workload.

Union leaders Noorul Amin Haiderzai, Mohammad Hussain Yousufzai, Naseerullah Mohmand, Shafiullah, Younus Shah, Yasir and others urged the federal government to accept their charter of demands to remove unrest among workers.

Traders Alliance Peshawar president Mujeebur Rehman also urged the government to lift the ban on labour unions and enable the people to raise voice for their rights. He also demanded an appropriate increase in pay and allowances of workers.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2021