Siraj asks govt to clear arrears of old age industrial workers

LAHORE: Ameer Jamaat-e-Islami Pakistan, Senator Siraj-ul-Haq has called upon the government to immediately clear the arrears of around 500,000 old age industrial workers, who were on the verge of starvation due to the apathy of the government.

Talking to the office-bearers of Old Age Employees Welfare Association, who called on him at Mansoora on Wednesday, he said industrial pensioners were facing hardships due to non-payment of their arrears, besides rising prices of basic commodities.

The JI chief deplored that the government had totally ignored the Supreme Court directions for raise in pensions of the old age industrial workers and the National Assembly resolution in this regard. He demanded that the EOBI pensions be raised to Rs10,000.

The EOBI leaders included Association President Raja Mukhtar Ahmad, Secretary Muhammad Saeed Awan and others.

Siraj-ul-Haq said if the rulers did not implement the apex court orders, the workers would be forced to take to streets. He said the rulers were persistently ignoring the rights of the workers and the farmers due to which there was great unrest in the society.

He said every state in the present era gave great respect to senior citizens and provided them free food, lodging, traveling and medical cover. However, he said, the Pakistani rulers were totally blind to the plight of old citizens, which is also against the Islamic teachings and the Constitution.

He said the government had not yet paid off Rs3 trillion that had been deducted from the salaries of the workers. Siraj-ul-Haq said the present government had presented three budgets in which the pensions of government employees had been enhanced.

However, the registered pensioners of the EOBI had been completely ignored. He said these industrial employees regularly subscribed to the Social Security Fund despite their small salaries but they were not getting medical facilities at the Social Security hospitals and dispensaries. The government, he said, had also promised medical cover under the Labour Policy but that too was not being implemented.

Meanwhile, Siraj-ul-Haq strongly condemned the bomb blast at Peshawar causing over a dozen deaths. He said those playing with the human lives did not deserve to be called humans. He prayed for the dead and for the early recovery of the injured.