‘Insensitivity of ruling elite causing socio-economic injustices’

Labour leaders and activists at a workers’ rally on Sunday accused the government of being facilitators and agents of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other global lenders, saying that growing socio-economic injustices in society are the result of the insensitivity of the ruling elite.

The National Trade Union Federation and the Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) had organised the rally outside the Karachi Press Club to protest against price hike and food inflation.

The protesters demanded that the government stop trying to make Pakistan “a colony of the IMF”. They also dubbed the global lender a new East India Company. They asked the government to cut the defence budget, and the salaries of the officers of grade 18 and above, including judges, parliamentarians and generals, by 50 per cent.

They said that the actual rate of inflation is much higher than the government-announced 15.1 per cent. They also said that according to an estimate, food inflation is more than 17.25 per cent.

They said the power tariff has been hiked by 24.8 per cent and the gas tariff by 45 per cent. They added that during the past five years, the prices of medicines have been increased by 265 per cent.

They said that the minimum wage was Rs16,200 (or $132) a month in 2018, while in 2022 it is Rs19,000 (or $95), which means that the minimum wage has actually decreased by $37 (or Rs7,300) a month. They demanded fixing at least Rs40,000 as the minimum wage, and calculating the minimum wage on the basis of price hikes.