Daily Times

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday said that the labourers’ rights remain the cornerstone of his party’s democratic ideology, and that the Constitution of 1973 guarantees justified wages, personal security and equal rights.

In his message on the eve of Labour Day being commemorated today 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 them.

The PPP chairman saluted Pakistani labourers who laid down 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 the PPP governments, he added.

Bilawal said the working class of Pakistan was still being deprived of their due rights, while those denying them their just rights and privileges were also at work. “Hence, the incumbent government of Imran [Khan] 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 and labourers of bread after the prices of the commodities and utility items rocketed during the past nine months of his misrule,” he pointed out.

He said that the flawed policies of the present government had almost buried the economy and such policies ruined the 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 reminded that PPP founder 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 in their respective company. It is also a major breakthrough that the PPP’s present provincial Sindh government has launched a tripartite labour policy, in which a mechanism has been devised to facilitate both sides – the employees and the employers. However, much is still needed to be done for the improvement in the policies to resolve all pending issues,” he said.

Bilawal urged the labourers and trade unions to join hands for the speedy resolution of the pending and other issues.