Labour leaders acclamation a assemblage at Aiwan-i-Iqbal. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
Heightened aegis on The Mall for a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf assemblage acquired several unions to change their affairs for the Labour Day. Traditionally, rallies by unions culminate at Charing Cross but on Sunday, the breadth had been cordoned off with acid affairs and pickets.
The All-embracing Youth and Workers Movement (IYWM) captivated a collective accident with the Pakistan Workers Confederation (PWC) abreast Aiwan-i-Iqbal. The assemblage was abutting by the Railway Workers Union, All Pakistan Hydro Electric Union, Irrigation Employees Federation and Bolt Workers Federation.
Osama Tariq, a agent for the PWC, said originally, the assemblage had been planned from Labour Hall on Nisbet Alley to The Mall. “We were clumsy to booty this avenue because of the pickets and alley blocks and absitively to break in one place.”
“We accept that the Panama Papers and bribery is an important issue. We accept in accountability of the base as able-bodied but it should not appear at the amount of the workers,” he said.
Talking to The Tribune, Tariq Shahzad of the (IYWM) said, “Labour Day is internationally acclaimed by workers. Every year, they get calm to allocution about the problems they face. This year, Labour Day was hijacked by the PTI.”
“PTI’s posters do not acknowledgment workers alike admitting their assemblage is actuality captivated on a day associated with workers’ solidarity,” he said. “It is axiomatic that the PTI is a affair of the cardinal chic and does not affliction for the alive class.”
Several workers at the assemblage complained that it had been difficult for them to ability the accessible meeting.
Mohammad Asim of the Pakistan Workers Confederation said, “I was activity to the assemblage on a motorbike. I got captivated up because I could not acquisition an another avenue to Aiwan-i-Iqbal.
“They had put up containers and acid affairs on several anchorage arch to The Mall. I had to go aback and alternating a few times afore I begin a way to get here,” he said.
Addressing the rally, PWC accepted secretary Khurshid Ahmed accursed the government for its privatisation plans.
He additionally apprenticed the government to acquaint a new labour action in acquiescence with ILO Conventions. He said the government should assemble a civic tripartite labour appointment which had not been captivated for added than bristles years. He said that the minimum allowance should be aloft to Rs25,000.
Scores of workers aggregate at Rang Mahal Chowk for a Labour Day programme organised by the Awami Workers Party. The affair had planned a artery theatre and a rally.
Talking to The Tribune, Taj Khan, a affair activist who is an agent at a boutique in Azam Cloth Market, accursed the badge for frequently afflictive workers of the market. “Policemen generally appear and apprehend adolescent boys alive at tea stalls. They are bedfast on suspicion alone and appear on acquittal of bribes,” he said. AWP baton Mohammad Ayaz said the government should apprentice to differentiate amid workers and terrorists. “Harassment of workers charge end.”
The AWP assemblage was originally declared to end at Charing Cross but back The Mall had been cordoned off by containers, it chock-full at the Accepted Post Office.
The assemblage organised by the Pakistan Workers Federation at Race Course Park could not move above Shadman Chowk.
Talking to The Tribune, Chaudhry Nasim Iqbal of the PWF said, “Workers assemble in advanced of the Bigoted Assembly on Labour Day as it is the abode of legislation. The acquisition is allegorical as workers admonish the government about its responsibilities,” he said.
“The PTI could accept acclimated the befalling to appearance adherence with the workers but they did not,” he said.
He said Labour Day was apparent by workers every year in anamnesis of the workers of Chicago who had absent their lives while arresting for an eight-hour assignment day.
“Today, abounding workers in Pakistan assignment added than 12 hours a day,” he said. “It paints a apologetic account about the accompaniment of workers abundance in the country.”
The Bonded Labour Liberation Advanced captivated their assemblage a day earlier.
Syeda Ghulam Fatima, the BLLF accepted secretary, said, “It is arbitrary that workers are abandoned on their day”.
She said 17 all-embracing conventions were actuality abandoned in the brick anhydrate industry. “These issues are allegedly not important for the government or the opposition,” she said.
Talking to The Tribune, DCO Muhammad Usman said, “We are acquainted that abounding workers’ groups were inconvenienced by the aegis measures on The Mall. Pickets and barriers had been set up to ensure aegis for the PTI rally. We had approved to abash the PTI administration from captivation the assemblage on The Mall on Labour Day but they were adamant.”
Solidarity: Labour Day rallies beyond the arena
Activists associated with labour wings of assorted political parties and WAPDA and Railways barter unions as able-bodied as associates of the Pasban Rickshaw Union, the Coca-Cola Workers Union, the covering apparel and bolt workers union, akhbar farosh union, brick-kiln workers abutment alternate in the rallies in Multan, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan.
They said abundance of the labour force was acute to civic development.
Speakers at a assemblage abiding by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz labour addition said the federal and bigoted governments had taken applied accomplish for convalescent workers’ active conditions.
Addressing a assemblage in Dera Ghazi Khan, Peoples’ Labor Bureau arch Mujahid Hussain Bukhari said PPP’s founding baton Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was hanged because of his abutment for the account of the alive class.
In Faisalabad, rallies were organised by the Civic Labor Federation, the FESCO Employees Power Union, the Railway Prem Union, the Irrigation Pasban Union, the FDA Employees Union, All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA), the Pasban Transport Union, the Peoples Labor Bureau and the Awami Workers Party.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 2nd, 2016.
