KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party leaders have reiterated their resolve that the pro-labour laws passed by the Sindh Assembly will be enforced in the province at every cost.

The PPP leaders were speaking at a programme held under the banner of the Peoples Labour Bureau at the Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi on the eve of International Labour Day on Wednesday.

The PPP leaders criticised the policy of privatisation of public-sector entities of the incumbent federal government saying that privatising these organisations would lead to exploitation of their workers.

Former chairman of Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said the supremacy of the International Monetary Fund would go against the rights of labourers in the country.

Ghani says hiring workers on contracts is against the law

He said the government had to fully consult the IMF for preparing its budget. He said the labourers in Pakistan had never thought that there would be a complete supremacy of the IMF in Pakistan. He conceded that all the rights of the workers weren’t being fulfilled in Sindh.

He said the institution of trade union had been abolished in the country under a well-thought-out plan.

Mr Rabbani said major organisations in the country had either been bereft of the trade unions or these representative bodies of labourers had been rendered paralysed.

He called upon the Sindh government and the chief minister to resolve the justified problems of labourers of the Pakistan Steel Mills.

Sindh Local Government Minister Saeed Ghani urged the trade unions to transform themselves and adapt to the present era.

He said the labourers in large institutions didn’t get the voting rights to elect their representatives. He said that a probe should be conducted to ascertain the reasons behind the denial of the rights of labourers in the country. He informed the audience that he had initiated some pro-worker reforms during his stint as the Sindh labour minister.

He lamented that the contractual service of workers had been continuing against the provisions of law. Mr Ghani said that he had witnessed the degeneration of the institution of the trade union during his 30-year political career.

He said that the PPP was the most pro-labour political party in the country. He urged the labourers to change their conduct and ways of practising labour politics.

Sindh Labour Minister Abdul Salam Taheem said the provincial government would take action against the institutions, which hadn’t been paying the government-notified minimum wage to workers.

He said the PPP would support the representatives of the labourers who had been striving to secure rights of the workers. He said the pro-labour laws passed by the Sindh Assembly would be implemented.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025