Zardari, Bilawal pledge support for working class

ISLAMABAD: Former president Asif Ali Zardari has said the Pakistan Peoples Party will continue to protect the rights of workers.

“Today workers, farmers and government employees are in extreme financial difficulties while the selected government has usurped the rights of workers employed in government industries including Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA and Railways and they are worried about their jobs,” he said in a statement on the eve of the May Day.

He said the founding chairman of the PPP, Quaid-e-Awam Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, had given the workers the right to form unions so that labour unions could collectively raise their voice for the rights of workers. He said today farmers are worried because they are not getting return for their crops and labour. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto always raised her voice in favour of workers.

Zardari said Rs 25 billion had been set aside for the welfare of workers of government enterprises, which have been stolen by the present government. He asked workers not to allow anyone to usurp their institutions under the guise of privatization. He said the PPP will always be with the workers like in the past.

Meanwhile, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the selected PTI government led by the “puppet Prime Minister Imran Khan” has turned out to be absolutely devastating for the labour class in the country.

In his message on the May Day, he said the protection of the rights of labourers is a cornerstone of the PPP’s ideology. He said the first-ever unanimously-adopted Constitution by Prime Minister Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto enshrined a wide range of provisions to protect the rights of blue-collared workers.

“Articles 11, 17, 18, 25 and 37(e) prohibit all forms of bonded labour, child labour, allow freedom of association, grant rights to form unions, provide citizens with the right to enter any lawful profession or trade without any discrimination, and secure reasonable working conditions,” he added.

Bilawal pointed out that the first-ever comprehensive Labour Policy was announced by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in 1972 and with the subsequent legislation, the scope of labour laws was enhanced and benefits like increased trade union rights, minimum wages, profit-sharing, statutory bonus, group insurance scheme, group incentive scheme, etc. were guaranteed. He said the Zia dictatorship reversed many of these progressive incentives and undid many of the gains Pakistan had made in securing labour rights.

He said Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto continued the PPP’s legacy by restoring labour rights and expanding benefit programmes for the labour class.The PPP government led by former president Asif Ali Zardari furthered this mission by offering partnerships to labourers in the state companies under the Benazir Employee Stock Option Scheme. Labour colonies with thousands of houses for labourers were constructed.

He said the selected government has only unleashed unemployment and poverty as millions have been turned jobless and pushed below the poverty line during the last two and a half years.

He pledged that his party would continue to strive for the rights of the working class and it wouldn’t allow the selected government to usurp their rights without facing strong resistance.