On the occasion of International Labour Day, workers held a big rally in Karachi on Monday to reject the government policies aimed at safeguarding “the vested interests of the elite class”.
A large number of workers participated in the rally jointly organised by the National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF). The rally marched from the Regal Chowk to the Karachi Press Club. Led by HBWWF general secretary Zehra Khan and NTUF leader Comrade Gul Rehman, the participants carrying banners, portraits of Chicago martyrs and red flags chanted revolutionary slogans.
Nasir Mansoor of the NTUF said that the Pakistani workers completely reject the current economic and political policies of the rulers and condemn their apathy towards the issues of working classes. They have deprived the workers of all their basic rights which they had got after the struggle of 1886, and these rights are only present in the books of law but not being implemented, he said, adding that the present system in the country only protected the vested interests of just five percent elite population.
Mansoor said that barring this five percent ruling elite, 330 million Pakistanis have been facing high price hikes, especially food inflation, political uncertainty and lawlessness. “The ruling elite has amassed huge wealth within and outside the country, but the common man is deprived of all basic facilities of life. More than half of our population is living beneath the poverty line. Factories and workplaces are modern-day jails where more than eight crore workers are made salaried slaves.”
He added that the golden jubilee of the 1973 constitution is being celebrated, but the rulers have shamelessly failed to provide their citizens the basic rights as per this very constitution. These rulers should be booked for violation of the constitution, he demanded.
He said that for the workers there is no democracy, freedom of expression and right to form trade unions. “There are about eight crore workers in Pakistan but their representation in assemblies is just nil. Factories and workplaces lack health and safety standards and have become virtual killing field for their workers. Ninety-nine percent workers are deprived of their rights of forming labour unions. They are not given appointment letters and not registered with social security institutions.”
Gul Rahma of the Workers Rights Movement said that as per an estimate 22 per cent of workers are women but they get 20 to 40 per cent lower wages than the male workers do, and harassment of women at workplaces is on the rise. He said that in industrial areas lawlessness is at the peak, factories depict the scene of the fifteenth century where workers as salaried slaves toil to make wealth for their owners, eight hours a day working hours are not being implemented and workers are forced to work for unpaid overtime and also on official holidays.
“The illegal contract labour system is there in almost ninety per cent of factories. The labour department is silent over this open violation of labour laws. State-owed entities are being sold for peanuts in the name of privatization., rendering hundreds of thousands workers jobless.”
Commenting on the worsening economic crisis in the country, Zehra Khan of the HBWWF said that rulers instead of improving economy are hell-bent upon submitting the county to the slavery of international lenders, especially the International Monetary Fund (IMF), whose “deadly debt trap” has virtually defaulted the country.
She regretted that despite the passage of over ten years since the Baldia factory fire incident, no solid steps have been taken yet for health and safety measures at workplaces. “The situation is just worrisome in the textile and garment sector. Factories making goods for international fashion brands are openly violating labour rights. To improve health and safety standards in textile, garments, shoemaking and leather sectors, some famed international brands have signed the Pakistan Accord. However, still many other international brands have yet to become the part of this important accord to save lives of their workers.”
Khan further said that to get rid of the current economic and political crises, price hike, food inflation, poverty and joblessness it is necessary that the workers should forge unity above the discrimination of colour, cast and creed and struggle for their rights in an organised manner.
The rally participants demanded that the minimum wage should be fixed at Rs50,000 per month, all workers, including the home-based workers, should be registered with the social security institutions, demands of lady health workers should be accepted, and workplaces should be kept free from harassment.
They asked to implement labour laws in factories and workplaces. Making labour unions should be allowed and wages be paid through bank system, they demanded, saying contract labour should be made a crime, and all citizens should be given proper education, healthcare, housing and public transport.
They also demanded that to get rid of the capitalist slavery and introduce real democracy, international norms should be adopted to freeze payments of all external debts, looting national resources in the name of privatisation should be stopped, the demands of the employees and pensioners of Pakistan Steel Mills should be accepted, the project of privatisation of Wapda and other state-owed entities should be shelved, a fifty percent cut should be made in all non-productive expenses, and trade relations with neighbours, especially India, Iran and China, should be promoted.
They asked to introduce agriculture reforms and distribute available state lands amongst the landless Haris free of cost. The export industry should be given concessional gas and electricity, electoral reforms should be introduced, workers, women and other oppressed classes should be given proper representation in assemblies, an empowered democratic local government system should be made, women, transgender persons and minorities should be accepted as equal citizens, all discriminatory laws should be abolished, implementation of anti-environment projects should be stopped, and people should not be made homeless in the name of development.
Those who spoke included Rafiq Baloch of the NTUF, Assad Iqbal Butt of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Karamat Ali of the National Labour Council, Saeed Balcoh of the PFF, Anny Yaqoob and Parveen Bano of the HBWWF, Saira Feroze and Zahida Parveen of the United HB Garments Workers Union, Dr Asghar Ali Dashti and Janat of the PTUDC, Aqib Hussain and Bilawal of Alternate, Bakhit Zamin of the Site Labour Forum, Muhammad Siddique and Zarina Khatoon of the Association of the Affectees of Baldia Factory Fire, Iqbal and Himat Phulpoto of the Textile General Workers Union, Zulfikar Shah of the Knowledge Forum, Mirza Maqsood of the Pakistan Steel Mill Retired Employees Association, Ghulam Mehboob, PC Hotel Workers Union, Ayub Qureshi of the National Party and Wahid Baloch.
‘Release Hidayat’
The Karachi Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir, Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, led a march on International Workers’ Day on Monday, in which he demanded the release of rights activist Maulana Hidayatur Rehman saying that he was put in jail for leading a movement for the rights of fishermen in Gwadar.
A large number of labourers and rights activists participated in the march that was organised by the National Labour Federation (NLF). It started at Coast Guard Chowrangi and ended in the coastal neighbourhood of Ibrahim Hyderi.
Naeem paid a rich tribute to Hidayat over his activism for the rights of fishermen and other communities in Gawadar and other parts of Balochistan. He said the Gawadar Rights Movement led by Hidayat had become an icon of labour rights struggle in the region.
He demanded that the government accept all demands of the Gawadar Rights Movement and release Hidayat. Talking about the issues of labourers in Sindh, he demanded that the Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) government in the province upgrade the minimum wage in accordance with the level of inflation in the country.
He said the ruling PPP always chanted the mantra of food, clothing and housing facilities for the poor but on the ground, it always adopted anti-poor policies.
The PPP had been ruling over Sindh for one-and-a-half decades but it did nothing to ensure due rights of the labourers, he said.
KWSB message
The chief executive officer (CEO) of the water board, Engineer Syed Salahuddin Ahmed, and chief operation officer Asadullah Khan expressed good wishes to the labour of the whole world, including Pakistan, in their message issued on the occasion of International Labour Day.
The CEO said the real key role in the development of any country was played by the labourers because the development of the world was incomplete without their hard work. He said that on occasion of this day, great workers of Chicago should also be remembered, due to their eternal sacrifices, and the movement created for the rights of workers had now become a global movement.
Ahmed said God has given us a clear order that the labourers should be paid before their sweat dries up, and this is the clear interpretation and definition of the status of workers and their economic rights in Islam.
He said the KWSB management is also committed to solving the problems of its employees, and the board is now counted among the organisations that provide timely salaries, medical facilities and other benefits to their employees, he added.