PESHAWAR, May 1: Speakers at a May Day gathering here demanded of the government to withdraw anti-labour Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 (IRO 2002), ending contractual employment and stop privatisation of profit-earning units like Pakistan Steel and PTCL.

The meeting was organised by the Mutahidda Labour Federation at the Jinnah Park on Monday.

Chaudhary Manzoor Ahmed, an MNA of the Pakistan People’s Party from Kasur said that the Musharraf government had auctioned huge public sector units to its favourites at throwaway prices, harming the country’s interest. Criticising the government’s privatisation policy, he said that prices of ghee, sugar and cement had increased manifolds since the privatisation of their units and the government was playing the role of a silent spectator over people’s exploitation.

He said that while the government had banned outsiders from contesting trade union posts, there was no law against any ‘green-card’ holder from becoming prime minister in Pakistan.

He said there was no protection for labourers but industrialists were free to loot financial institutions, manipulate tax evasion and exploit their workers. He said the country was being run by “a handful of exploiters, bank defaulters, adventurists, feudal lords and American agents in the name of national security and Islam”.

Blaming the country’s religious bloc for facilitating Gen Musharraf in his anti-democratic moves, he said the so-called opposition group made up of assorted religious parties was responsible for growing lawlessness, unemployment and price hikes.

He urged trade unions to unify on a single platform to defeat what he termed gangs of criminals and power mafias, who had been clinging to political power in Pakistan.