KARACHI, Nov 16: Speakers at a meeting rejected the Industrial Relations Ordinance 2002 and demanded that it be revoked immediately.

Speaking at the meeting organized by the Habib Bank Workers Front for various labour organizations, they said that the government, by announcing the IRO, had encroached on the jurisdiction of the elected representatives.

They said that after the elections it was only up to the parliament to formulate policies, and any single person could not be allowed to take such crucial decisions. They said that workers would urge the new government to formulate a new policy in consultation with representatives of workers.

They said under the down-sizing policy of the government, over 700,000 people had become unemployed in the past five years.

They said that the country would not be able to achieve the goal of economic progress by making a large number of people unemployed, it could only progress if there was political stability and better law and order situation.

They also criticised the unplanned policy of privatization under which, they said, even profit-making organizations were being privatized at rock-bottom prices. They said that real trade union could not support any privatization policy which was against the interests of workers and against the national interests.

They called for the abolition of the controversial provisions in the Banking Ordinance and the Civil Servants Act under which, they said, the management could victimise and sack its employees.

Acting chief of the All Pakistan Trade Union Organizations, Habibuddin Junaidi and Fazal Karim Orakzai, Haji Yaqoob, Syed Nadira Parveen, M. ashraf Baloch, A. Ghafar Junejo, Nasiruddin Mahmood spoke on the occasion.