‘Pandora Papers prove loot and plunder by Pakistan’s ruling classes’

Trade union leaders at a labour rights rally said on Thursday the Pandora Papers are an undeniable proof of the loot and plunder by the ruling classes in Pakistan.

The National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) jointly organised the rally to condemn the frequent price hikes, joblessness, poverty and hunger in the country. The rally started from thre Regal Chowk and ended at the Karachi Press Club.

Addressing the participants, speakers, including the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan’s Asad Iqbal Butt, the Pakistan Labour Council’s Karamat Ali, the NTUF’s Nasir Mansoor, the HBWWF’s Zehra Akbar Khan, the Karachi Union of Journalists’ Fahim Siddiqui, the Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum’s Saeed Baloch, said the ruling elite was transferring the looted money from Pakistan to their safe tax heavens abroad, while the millions of workers of the country were deprived of the basic facilities of life despite the fact that they worked tirelessly.

The rulers, to get their vested interests, had mortgaged Pakistan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other imperialistic lending institutions, they said, adding that an artificial political system created as a result of this economic slavery had now faced a downfall, and the workers had pledged to fight this system based on injustice.

Due to the imprudent economic, social and foreign policies of the rulers, the country had been pushed to the verge of collapse, they said. The ruling classes, which represented the vested interests of international capital, were pitched against the masses, they remarked.

The speakers said the entire economic system of Pakistan was in the grip of the agents and employees of international lending institutions, such as the IMF.

As a result, price hikes, joblessness, hunger and poverty were at their peak, the rates of daily use kitchen items like wheat flour, sugar, cooking oil, rice and pulses had increased by one hundred per cent, and medicines had been made costlier by 300 to 400 per cent, and gas and electricity by 100 to 200 per cent, they said, adding that the sharp price hikes had broken the back of workers.

They said that due to the anti-people policies of this government, the Pakistani rupee had been devalued by about 17 per cent, which meant that the real wages of workers were cut by half. The inflation rate in Pakistan was more than 11 per cent, which was almost double that of other countries of the region, while per capita income in Pakistan was almost half that of other countries of the region, they noted.

In industrial zones, the labour leaders said, there was virtually a martial law-like situation and institutions like labour departments, labour courts and NIRC had become frontmen of the capitalists and they worked against the rights of labourers, they alleged.

Violations of human rights, labour laws and constitutional basic rights in factories and workplaces were the order of the day, they said, adding that all this was happening against the backdrop when Pakistan in 2014 had promised to safeguard the rights of workers under GSP Plus.

However, the labour rights as enshrined in the GSP Plus were being openly violated and as a result heavy duty could be slapped over garments and other products being exported to the European countries, which would cast very negative effects on the national industry, especially textile and garments sectors, speakers said.

Due to the wrong policies of the sitting government, the economic and political crises had compelled different sections of society to take to the streets, they said, noting that there was a ban and curbs on political and social workers, journalists and media organisations that exposed the horrible economic, political and social crises looming large over the country.

The sitting rulers in order to hide facts, to block access to information, and to gag the freedom of press and speech have hatched a conspiracy to slap a so-called Pakistan Media Development Authority (PDMA) that is being opposed by the journalists and other media workers across Pakistan, they added.

At the end of the rally, through resolutions, participants demanded of the government to ensure implementation of the minimum Rs25,000 wage, and to make eight-hour working days, one paid weekly holiday and double rate overtime mandatory.

They also demanded ending the “modern slavery system of illegal contact labour for good”, registering every worker with social security and pension institutions, ending harassment of women and discrimination towards them at workplaces, and ensuring workplace safety at all costs.

The rates of wheat flour, cooking oil, pulses, sugar, rice, milk, electricity, gas, petroleum products, medicines, education, health, public transport, and other basic needs of life should be lowered and their access to the public should be ensured, they further demanded.

They also called for stopping privatisation of public-owned institutions, such as Pakistan Steel Mills and Wapda, restoring workers and journalists sacked from government, semi-government and autonomous bodies, and not implementing the PDMA.