LAHORE, Oct 13: The Pakistan Workers Confederation has urged the newly-elected MNAs and MPAs to renounce their salaries and fringe benefits till the retirement of the huge foreign debt burden.

PWC Secretary-General Khurshid Ahmed said in a statement here on Sunday that the people had reposed their confidence in the political parties to strengthen the democratic institutions and solving their economic problems.

At present, foreign debt was the biggest problem being faced by the country. It had deprived the country of its economic sovereignty and forced it to accept the dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.

He said that the newly-elected members of the national and provincial assemblies and the leaders of the majority political parties should realize the gravity of the situation and resolve to retire the foreign debt on top priority basis.

They should renounce their salaries and fringe benefits running into millions of rupees every month till the retirement of the foreign debt burden for setting an example of sacrifice.

He said that the newly-elected parliamentarians should also resolve to shun confrontation and work in harmony for solving the national problems of poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and lack of basic amenities like housing, education and health care.

The solution to these problems required collective struggle as no single party was in a position to solve them. The rulers had been ignoring these sectors since the creation of Pakistan.

He said that the majority political parties should pay special attention to develop the national industry to enable it to face the challenge of globalization.

The new government should bring the labour laws in conformity with the ILO Conventions ratified by the government. It should give incentives to the workers for boosting industrial production and improvement in the quality of products for competing in the world market.

He said that the political parties aspiring for power should remember that the people had suffered the agony of four military rules in its brief history. The incapability of their predecessors to run the government in a proper manner and their politics of confrontation resulted in dismissal of the governments five times in 11 years. Their government would also meet a similar fate in case they tread in the footprints of their predecessors.