Showing their concerns over the layoffs of more than 900 workers from Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan has demanded of the federal government to stop conspiring against the workers employed by the state-owned enterprises.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has recently decided to approve the golden handshake scheme for the PSM workers ahead of its privatisation. On Friday, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, the MQM-P’s convener, condemned the news of the sacking of over 9,000 workers, and said his party had always demanded of the prime minister and the Sindh governor to take concrete steps to revive the PSM.
“The federal government has also promised us to protect the jobs of thousands of labourers working at the PSM,” said Siddiqui. “But the government has announced the sacking of the workers in the name of an economic package. “We condemn the government’s move.”
Siddiqui said depriving thousands of workers of the PSM of jobs would affect millions of family members. With COVID-19 cases on the rise in the country, the MQM-P’s convener appealed to the public to maintain social distancing and stay at their homes.
MQM-P central leader Faisal Sabzwari and the party’s two members of the Sindh Assembly, Ali Khurshidi and Ghulam Jilani, had recently been contracted the coronavirus. “I appeal to the people to avoid going to public places where the chances of the spread of the virus are greater and to observe social distancing,” said Siddiqui.
He said a significant number of the MQM-P workers had been fighting the coronavirus. He also demanded an increase in the capacity of COVID-19 treatment facilities across Sindh, especially in Karachi, on an urgent basis as well as the imposition of a health emergency in the province.
Sabzwari, in a tweet, requested friends and loved ones to pray for their recovery of patients and urged everyone to be cautious and follow the protocols for prevention against the deadly respiratory disease. “For God’s sake, be careful, be safe, because there is no space in the hospitals,” Sabzwari said.