HYDERABAD, July 12: The leaders of Pakistan Workers Federation have demanded that the right to form trade unions should be restored, all labour laws should be implemented, contract system should be abolished, unemployment, feudal system and privatisation of national enterprises should be done away with and small dams should be constructed to generate electricity.

They further demanded that the Presidential Ordinance 2000 should be repealed and government’s non-productive expenditures should be curtailed.

They were speaking at a labour conference organised by the Workers Federation of interior of Sindh region at the labour hall here on Friday.

The central president of the federation, Chaudhry Talib Nawaz, secretary Khursheed Ahmed and others said that lawlessness, price hike, unemployment and poverty had gripped the country but the rulers have failed to take any notice of the miseries of common man and they were only interested in power.

They said due to poverty, people were committing suicides and the working class was unable to make both ends meet.

They said the workers even today have not been given the right to form trade unions, the labour laws were being openly violated and the contract system had made the lives of workers miserable. They said that foreign loans had weakened the foundations of the country. The conference demanded that child labour should be eliminated and the people should be provided basic facilities of education and health care.

Expressing grave concern over the lawlessness, the conference adopted a resolution calling upon the government to take immediate and effective measures to control it.

It further demanded that the salaries of workers should be increased commensurate with the price hike, Shahdadkot textile mills, Thatta and Dadu sugar mills and all the closed factories should be made functional and the minimum wages act should be implemented without any delay.

Another resolution demanded that referendum should be held in HDA, all the work charge employees should be regularised and social security cover should be provided to all employees.

In another resolution they demanded abolition of anti-labour laws and implementation of ILO conventions. The others who spoke on the occasion included Abdul Latif Nizamani, Mir Khan Baloch, Mohammad Ahmed, Zahoor Awan, Mehboob Ali Qureshi and others.