PESHAWAR, July 20: The workers’ union of a cement company has demanded of the government to ensure that labourers get the promised 10 per cent stake in the privatized company.

In a fax statement issued here on Saturday, General Secretary of Workers Union, Shoukat Mehmood, said that Kohat Cement Factory Limited was privatized in 1992. During that process, the then government had specified 10 per cent shares for the labourers. Those shares have not yet been given, he said.

All the previous governments, who had cited safeguarding of legal rights of the labourers as an integral part of their manifestos, shirked from doing justice to the working class.

During the referendum campaign, President Gen Pervez Musharraf summoned the representatives of labourers in Islamabad for a meeting, during which he was apprised of the previous governments’ pledges concerning the transfer of 10 per cent share to the workers. However, he lamented, event the president could not respond positively to our plea.