LAHORE, June 1: Various labour leaders rejected on Friday the federal budget for the fiscal year 2012-13 and criticized the government for not allocating even a single penny for the relief of private sector workers.

“Although Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani had on May 1 announced giving a raise of Rs1,000 in the minimum monthly wages of workers, the finance minister neither mentioned it nor gave any plan or strategy to combat the problems being faced by millions of labourers working in the private sector,” Muttahida Labour Federation’s secretary-general Hanif Ramay commented while talking to Dawn.

He said the federal government’s budget had left workers at the mercy of industrialists who always exploited them by cutting their wages and denying rights.

He said his federation couldn’t say anything in this situation except to condemn the government for presenting anti-workers budget.

All Pakistan Trade Union Federation secretary-general Rubina Jamil said the government only focused on maintaining the defence budget instead of allocating funds for workers’ uplift, health, education and other nation-building departments working for mass uplift.

“We reject the budget as it offers nothing to workers who are the backbone of the country,” she deplored.

Bonded Labour Liberation Front secretary-general Syeda Ghulam Fatima held the government responsible for ignoring workers and leaving them at the mercy of provincial governments after introducing the 18th Amendment. “Though after the 18th Amendment the issues relating to labourers/workers in the private sector are to be dealt by provincial governments, the federal government should have announced special grants/funds for provinces to spend these on workers’ uplift projects,” she said.

Labour Party Pakistan’s spokesman Farooq Tariq termed the budget a ‘cosmetic show’ of statistics that revolved around making payments to the IMF and the World Bank in the form of loans.

“When a major chunk of Rs900 billion will be used for making payments to the IMF and the World Bank and other huge amounts for the defence budget, how the government could do anything good for citizens, including workers,” he said.

He said the LPP was already mobilizing the people to press the government to refuse returning loans under the prevailing critical economic situation of the country.

He deplored that the finance minister did not use even a single word for workers in his budget speech.