KARACHI, Dec 15: Speakers at a workers’ meeting here on Sunday demanded abolition of all anti-worker laws and introduction of worker-friendly legislation in the country.

Speaking at the 17th biennial meeting of the Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions, the labour leaders demanded of the government to review the Industrial Relations Ordinance (IRO) 2002, making it worker-friendly. They criticized the privatization process which, they said, had led to a mass-scale unemployment.

They demanded that workers in all organizations be allowed to participate in trade union activities without any hindrance and that their salaries be increased, keeping in view the ratio of the ever-increasing inflation which has economically crippled the poor.

The speakers called for effective implementation of labourers-related laws, so that poor workers got justice without delay.

The director of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions, Dr Saboor Ghayoor, urged workers to forge unity in their ranks to effectively meet the challenges which have emerged in the changed international scenario.

The president, Pakistan National Federation of Trade Unions, Mohammad Sharif, said that on the one hand the number of facilities being provided to the workers under social security net were being increased in the world, while on the other the government of Pakistan had promulgated the IRO 2002, under which even the facilities being provided to the workers would be restricted and abolished.

The president of the General Federation of Trade Union of Iraq, Jameel Salman Aljubery, presented a brief resume of conditions and the facilities being provided to workers in his country.

MNA Mahmood Ahmad Qureshi, Ahsanullah Khan of the Employers’ Federation of Pakistan, Abdul Ghafoor Baloch, Zahoor Awan, Khalique Ahmad, Zulekha Zar, Qazi Tanveer, Mian Shahbaz, Ejaz Siddiqui, Iqbal Munshi, Zohra Bibi and others also spoke.