OUR STAFF REPORTER LAHORE Senior labour leaders on Friday demanded that the minimum wages of a worker should be raised from Rs 7,000 a month to Rs 10,000 because of the unbridled price hike. They have also called for strict implementation of the Labour Laws, hoping that 80 per cent of workers problems would be solved through this single step. Pakistan Workers Federation Secretary General Khurshid Ahmed, Punjab PML-N Labour Wing President Syed Mushtaq Husain Shah, Railway Workers Union Open Line President Chaudhry Ashiq Husain, Women Workers Organisation Pakistan chief Aiman Mahmoud said this while speaking in Aiwan-i-Waqt on the eve of the Labour Day. Provincial parliamentary secretary Rana Arshad presented the Punjab governments point of view. Khurshid Ahmed said a country could make progress by improving the working atmosphere of workers and those failed to do so were always left behind. To substantiate his point, he cited the examples of China and Pakistan, which though attained independence almost simultaneously, could not be compared with each other. He said China had become an industrial giant and a world power, but Pakistan was nowhere. He called for the system of Islamic equality. He also alleged that legislators were not fully attentive while passing various laws. Referring to the carefree attitude of the Senate, Khurshid Ahmed said a bill passed by the Lower House of parliament against womens harassment expired only because the Senate failed to take it up in 90 days. Chaudhry Ashiq Husain proposed that workers should set up their own party under their own leadership. According to him, all political leaders were involved only in sloganeering and were unable to bring about any change. He said workers power had been dented as a result of the 18th Amendment. Aima Mahmoud was of the view that women workers were facing the worst situation. Rana Muhammad Arshad called upon the president and the prime minister to honour their commitments about workers rights. Syed Mushtaq Husain said no government could do anything for the workers, except Mian Nawaz Sharif who had given a 33-point labour policy.