LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Labour and Human Resource Raja Ashfaq Sarwar has said the government is going to announce labour policy in accordance with the International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions after the South Asia Labour Conference.

The minister revealed this at curtain-raiser to the South Asia Labour Conference here on Thursday.

The conference aims at enhancing cooperation among the South Asian countries for joint initiatives to improve labour management, labour market policies, capacity-building of labourers besides elimination of forced and child labour and plight of women workforce, he said.

Mr Sarwar said the Punjab government, with the cooperation of the ILO, European Union (EU) and federal government, was organising the three-day ministerial level conference in the city from April 24 to 26.

“More than 80 delegates from South Asian countries, including India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Maldives, are attending the conference to discuss the labour issues in South Asia and share best practices learnt and to develop way forward for collective regional initiatives,” he said, adding that the delegates from China and Turkey were also participating in the conference.

Labour and Human Resource Secretary retired Captain Muhammad Yousaf also spoke.

MPA Saira Iftkhar, Parliamentary Secretary for Information and Culture Rana Muhammad Arshad, MPA Sardar Ramaish Singh Arora and Punjab Employee Social Institute Commissioner Farhan Aziz Khawja were also present.