Ownership rights to workers in labour colonies sought

NOWSHERA: Pakistan United Workers Federation, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, president Muhammad Iqbal on Sunday asked the KP government to grant the ownership rights to workers in labour colonies as given by Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan governments.

Speaking at a press conference at the Nowshera Press Club, he said that despite requesting a meeting with the provincial minister for Labour, workers were denied time to discuss their issues.

He appealed to Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to invite labour organisations for talks and resolve the issue of ownership rights in labour colonies as well as other matters under labour laws.

Iqbal warned that if the workers’ demands were not met by October, then labour organisations from across KP would stage sit-in for an indefinite time outside the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

Provincial general secretary Razim Khan, Labour Colonies Action Committee Convener Muslim Khan, Imdad Hussain Paracha, Ajmali Khan and other labour leaders were also present at the press conference.

Iqbal added that KP workers were being deprived of ownership rights despite decisions from the Workers Welfare Fund’s governing body and judgments of the Peshawar High Court (PHC). He said that in 2011, ownership rights were approved for workers, and in other provinces, these colonies were already allotted to workers on ownership basis.

In KP, some allotment letters were also issued, but factory owners challenged the process in the PHC. He said the high court dismissed the owners’ petition and ruled in favour of workers, ordering monthly progress reports on ownership allotments.

However, in 2017, without consulting the provincial government, the Labour secretary challenged the decision in the SC, a move which Iqbal called “highly questionable” and “bizarre.”He demanded that the provincial government should withdraw the case from the Supreme Court and immediately implement the decisions of the PHC and the Workers Welfare Fund, thereby granting workers their longstanding and fundamental rights.