KARACHI: National Labour Council (NLC) has expressed solidarity with the protesting workers of WAPDA and Pakistan Steel Mills and demanded the government to call off its privatization programme.
In a joint meeting of the NLC held at PILER Centre here Thursday evening, the workers also expressed serious concern over delay in the hearing of the petition of the Balochistan workers against Balochistan High Court, banning trade unions of state-owned organizations.
Khan Zaman of Baluchistan Labour Federation said the BHC had imposed a ban on 62 trade Unions in the government entities without any justification. The workers have challenged the BHC decision in a petition at Supreme Court, but for the last one year its hearing has not held.
Karamat Ali of Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) said that the present government is following the IMF agenda of privatization, which would further increase unemployment of workers.
Sultan Khan of Pakistan Central Mines Labour Federation (PCMLF) Balochistan said over 3 lac mineral workers, majority of them are coal minors. They are working in bad conditions without health and safety conditions. Habibuddin Junaidi said that present government of Sindh is seriously working on solving of problems of Pakistan Steel workers.