Govt urged to check prices of edibles

LAHORE: The working class has demanded from the federal and provincial governments to check price-hike in Ramazan and bring the hoarders and profiteers to book. They stressed on the need to contain prices of edibles and essential commodities.

These demands were raised in a meeting held under the aegis of All-Pakistan Workers Confederation (APWC) on Saturday at Bakhtiar Labour Hall in which a large number of workers and affiliated trade union representatives participated. General Secretary of APWC Khurshid Ahmed, Rubina Jamil, Akbar Ali Khan, Ch M Anwar, Osama Tariq, Salahuddin Ayubi, Khushi M Khokhar, Niaz Khan and other representatives of the confederation spoke on the occasion.

They also called for ensuring safe working conditions for workers employed in industry, commerce, trade, banks and media against coronavirus. Raise in wages of workers employed in the private sector commensurate with price-hike was another demand. The pays have not been raised for the last couple of years while the prices of essential items have doubled during this time, they said.

They appealed to all political parties, the government and civil society to make concerted efforts to tackle rising unemployment and poverty and irrational gap between the rich and poor in the society.