KARACHI, May 28: The Pakistan People’s Party, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and MCB Staff Union of Pakistan (Shaheed Usman Ghani Group) have strongly condemned the retrenchment of more than 1,000 employees of the Muslim Commercial Bank, and demanded their immediate reinstatement.

Deputy Secretary-General of the PPP Mian Raza Rabbani said in a statement on Saturday that the government’s privatisation policy was resulting in retrenchment of lower-grade employees. He said that through this policy, the government was making institutions attractive for buyers, but leaving workers at the mercy of capitalists, who would again adopt the same course of action.

He said the privatised institutions were employing people on heavy salaries but sacking the low-paid employees, who had already been crushed under the increasing prices of essential commodities. “It is unfortunate that the lower and middle class of workers were being forced to pull their children out of school and commit even suicide as they could not make two ends meet,” he added.

Sindh PPP’s President Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Secretary-General Nafees Siddiqui, Rashid Rabbani, Waqar Mehdi and other leaders also condemned the sacking of MCB employees, and termed it ‘continuity of the government’s anti-worker policies’.

They said that since the present government’s coming to powers, more than 0.7 million workers had been retrenched. They said that the government’s privatisation policy was, in fact, ‘economic murder’ of employees.

Assuring the affected MCB employees of PPP’s full support, they demanded their immediate reinstatement, and said that the party would continue its struggle for the rights of low-income group.

The MCB Staff Union of Pakistan (SUG Group) leaders Saeed Ghani, Malik Ejaz, Mahmood Alam Niazi and Malik Aziz Mukhtar condemned the sacking of low-grade MCB workers and appealed to the president, prime minister and chief justice of Pakistan to take notice of the “inhuman, illegal and immoral act’.

They pointed out that the MCB earned Rs8.92 billion profit last year and in the current year also, its expected Rs20 billion profit. They said that the bank’s president and other high-officials had been awarded bonus of millions of rupees.

They urged the superior courts to take notice of the retrenchment and take steps for an immediate reinstatement of the sacked workers.

Meanwhile, the central coordination committee of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s Labour Division on Sunday strongly condemned the sacking of MCB workers and termed it ‘economic genocide’ of workers by the bank’s administration.

In a statement, it deplored that the MCB administration’s concern was only to maximise profits and had no concern about improving its workers’ condition.

It said that with unemployment having already reached at its peak in the country, the sacking of more than 1,000 MCB workers was tantamount to pushing their families to starvation. It noted that such retrenchments were creating unrest among workers.

It urged the president and prime minister to take notice of the sacking and take steps for ensuring their continued employment.—PPI