FAISALABAD: The Punjab government has withdrawn the free transport facility for four workers welfare schools which irked their parents who staged a protest demonstration at the district council chowk on Monday.

As many as 18,000 children of the workers of Faisalabad industry are enrolled in these schools and have been availing themselves of the free transport facility for two decades.

The protest has been organised by the Labour Qaumi Movement and other labour organisations.

Talking to reporters, LQM office-bearers Aslam Miraj, Baba Latif and others said the government seemed hell-bent on withdrawing the facilities being extended to labourers and their children. They said thousands of students were enrolled in four schools set up in different parts of the district and had been using the free transport facility for two decades.

They said poor workers were not in a position to afford the transport expense of their children as the price hike had made their lives miserable and they were finding it difficult to make both ends meet.

‘Anti-education’ and ‘anti-labour’ policies were being adopted by the government as prior to withdrawing the transport facility, the government had also suspended the facility of marriage grant, death grant and educational scholarships, they said.

The labourer leaders claimed that the government was not making contribution rather the workers were paying to run the Punjab Workers Welfare Funds and the government had no right to withdraw such facilities.

They said workers would not remain silent on the ‘ill-conceived’ policies of the government and they would stage a protest demonstration on Tuesday (today) by closing the schools. They said if the facility was not be restored then workers would go to Lahore along with their children and stage a protest demonstration in front of the Labour secretariat.

Published in Dawn, August 3rd, 2021