KARACHI - International Labour Day will be observed in the city on Monday with different political and labour organisations to hold gathering highlighting plights of the labour community in the province.
The Pakistan People’s Party has announced holding a public gathering in the city in connection Labour Day celebrations which would be addressed by the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
PPP Karachi Division President Saeed Ghani said that key announcements for labourers and farmers would be made during the gathering.
Different labour organisations have also announced holding demos and gatherings in the city to mark the day.
A gathering at Karachi Press club would also be organised to highlight the issues faced by labourers in the country which would be attended by former chairman Senate Senator Raza Rabbani, former President Supreme Court Bar Council Rasheed A Rizvi and other labour leaders and people from different walks of life.
A rally of women workers working in formal and informal sectors will also participate in a rally titled ‘Mehnatkash Aurat Rally’ from Regal Chowk to Karachi Press Club which would be led by Saba Edhi of Edhi foundation. National Trade Union Federation and other trade and labour organisations will also be holding rallies in the city to observe the event in the city.
BILAWAL’S MESSAGE
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the labourers’ rights remain the cornerstone of Party’s democratic ideology, adding that the Constitution of 1973 guarantees justified wages, personal security and equal rights.
In his message on the eve of Labour Day being commemorated tomorrow across the world, he pledged that the PPP would continue to fight for the labourers rights until the labour class gets what the Constitution has guaranteed for.
PPP Chairman offered salutations to Pakistani labourers, who laid their lives for the rights of their class during the struggle for restoration and strengthening of democracy, which is still continuing. However, they have achieved certain targets during their struggle for the rights mainly during PPP governments.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the working class of Pakistan was still being deprived of their due rights and the menace of denying them of their just rights and privileges is also in full swing. Hence the incumbent government of Imran Niazi and the collective interests of the working and labour classes of Pakistan stand poles apart from each other. The present Niazi Government has deprived the poor, indigent, and labourers of bread after the prices of commodity and utility items have been skyrocketed during the nine months misrule, he pointed out.
He said that the flawed policies of the present government have almost buried the economy and such policies have ruined lives of the people across the board. “Amid these devastating situations, only the PPP is capable of creating a balance between the employers and the employees through fair and workable policies and programmes,” he added.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari reminded that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had in his time pioneered the labour policy and trade unions rights and again it was the PPP government that introduced “Benazir Employees Stake Option Scheme” through which the employees benefitted from free shares of their respective company. It is also a major breakthrough that PPP’s present provincial Sindh Government has launched a tripartite labour policy, in which a mechanism has been devised facilitate both sides of the employees and the emplowers. However, there is still much need for the improvement in the policies to resolve all pending issues, he said.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari urged upon labourers and trade unions to join hands together for the speedy resolution of the pending and other issues that are repressive in the mode of application on the pattern of labour movement observed on May Day.
He assured the labourers of Pakistan that the PPP would, in light of ideology of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and as per the vision of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, keep struggling for the rights of the labourers as the torchbearer democratic fight.
PUBLIC HOLIDAY
The provincial government has declared May 1 as a public holiday in all government offices, autonomous and semi-autonomous bodies, corporations and local councils under the control of the provincial government except essential services.
