Speaking at a big gathering of government employees of various departments at Chacha Younus Park, the leaders of the All Pakistan Federation of Labours said that 117 years had passed since the martyrdom of Hay Market workers, things were as usual in Pakistan. The workers had been denied of pension and other rights by the government, which was supposed to protect the rights of workers.
APFL president Chaudhry Talib Nawaz, chairman Khalilur Rehman, general secretary Zahoor Ahmed Awan, Lala Ehsan Qureshi, Yousuf Khan, Malik Naveed, Addurrab Sabir and other spoke on the occasion.
They demanded of the government to withdraw ILO 2002 as it was anti-worker. It had disturbed the industrial relations and deprived the workers of their basic rights.
They advised the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal government not to exploit religion for personal gains, and implement the Islamic laws which guaranteed basic rights to the labours.
They alleged that the public sector education institutions were being destroyed to advance the interests of the owners of private schools. It was a conspiracy to keep the poor students away from schools, they said.
The contract system, they said, was a curse which denied all basic financial rights to the workers, but the government, on the directives of the World Bank and IMF, had introduced it in the education and health sector. “Contractual employees are not entitled for pension,” the APFL leaders said.
They said that pursuing the devolution plan, thousands of workers were placed in the surplus pool, who were being treated as a redundant work force. The plan had dislocated majority of the lower-grade employees, who were not paid salaries in time, they lamented.
The public meeting also adopted a number of resolutions and urged the government to reopen the closed industrial units in Hattar, Gadoon and Nowshera industrial estates and other parts of the NWFP.
They urged the government to adjust the lower-grade employees, who had been sent surplus pool, in the other departments.
Another meeting was organized by the Public Transport Owners Association, NWFP, at General Bus Stand.
Sher Ali, Noor Mohammad Khan Mohmand, Fiyyaz Khan, Haji Bilal, Yousuf Shah, Rasheed Ahmed, Aimal Khan and others spoke at the May Day meeting.
They asked the government to announce an increase in the transport fares as it was impossible for them to run their business in the present situation. They asked the government to order the renewal of licenses of Afghan drivers, and advise contractors at Nowshera and Pabbi bus stands not to charge extra fee from transporters.