ISLAMABAD, April 30: Members and friends of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) for citizens' rights, Islamabad - Rawalpindi, have joined hands with trade unions, labour comrades, workers and fellow citizens to observe Labour Day on Saturday.

"We join hands in solidarity with the trade unions and workers in the entire labour sector, and we strongly endorse the long standing demands for a progressive national labour policy, along with the necessary legislation and ratification of all the relevant international conventions and other instruments," a press release said.

This statement has been endorsed by Railway Labour Union, Rikshaw Union, Diharri Dar Union, Joint Action Committee, Citizen Peace Committee, Mubazra, Women Action Forum, and Progress Women Association, Rawalpindi-Islamabad.

"We believe that labour rights are an integral part of human rights movement," it said. Unions have taken strong notice of the recent media reports, quoting government statements regarding cancellation of the existing 5 per cent quota for the employment of women in public sector, it said.

The quota was established in 1989 through an executive order, and while it was in practice at the federal level, the Sindh government had endorsed a 3.5 per cent quota, the NWFP government had endorsed a 2 per cent quota, while the governments of Balochistan and Punjab had not endorsed it at all, the statement said.

The current government has cancelled the quota in its entirety. This comes in stark contrast to the recent report commissioned and published by the Pakistan National Commission on the Status of Women (NCSW), titled "An Inquiry into the Status of Women in Public Sector Employment" (2004). It recommended enhancement of the existing 5 per cent quota - and not its cancellation.

"We call upon the federal and provincial governments to forthwith endorse and immediately start implementing the recommendations of the NCSW's report, particularly reinstating an enhanced employment quota and appointing women secretaries in both federal and provincial governments as a first step," the statement said.