Relief for working class demanded

LAHORE: Awami Workers Party leadership has demanded the government provide relief to the working class in letter and spirit while fulfilling its pre-poll promises and obligations to the state.

In a statement issued on Friday, the Awami Workers Party President Ghulam Mujtaba and Secretary General Shazia Khan said the working class of Pakistan had pinned many hopes from the new government they see any relief in the policy assessment announced a couple of days ago.

They said while the government is seeking an increase in the indigenous and direct foreign investment, it has not expressed any plan to improve the conditions of the working class without whom no improvement can be expected in the conducive environment necessary for industrial growth.

The contract labour is still deprived of the basic benefits, said the Awami Workers Party leaders. “It is the need of the time that all the casual and seasonal labour be regularised and entitled to the fundamental perks allowed by law making them full members of the social security institution and guaranteeing them at least minimum wage announced every year in the national budget” they said in the joint statement.

They added that the peasants and small land owners of the country have been agitating time and again against the costly inputs and lack of control on the price. The millers present excuse every year for not initiating crushing in time and for not paying the suppliers of sugarcane for months, they added. They demanded the government devise a mechanism through national banks to pay the sugarcane growers as promptly as it is done in case of wheat growers.