LAHORE - Working class observed protest day on Thursday all over the country under the aegis of Pakistan Workers Confederation in support of their demands, urging the prime minister to raise wages and pensions of the workers employed in government, semi-government departments, autonomous bodies and private sector @ 30% of their basic pay and fix minimum pension at Rs10,000 per month and minimum wage at Rs.30,000 per month for unskilled workers as well as levy tax upon feudal lords and elite and get recovered $300 billion deposited by the elite of the country in Swiss banks and raise productivity of national public utilities instead of privatizing them.
The workers held mass protest rallies in various cities of the country including Peshawar, Hyderabad, Quetta, Gujranwala, Rawalpindi/Islamabad, Attock, Multan, Faisalabad, Sukkur and other cities. At Lahore, a large protest rally was held at Press Club Square, which was participated by representatives and workers of the trade unions of various departments and private sector industrial trade unions including WAPDA, electricity, railways, PTCL, textile, transport, leather, PWD, irrigation etc.
Veteran trade union leader Khurshid Ahmad, General Secretary, Ms Robina Jameel, M/s, Yousuf Baloch, Chairman, Akbar Ali Khan, Additional General Secretary, Osama Tariq, Secretary, Ch Anwar, Chief Organizer, Niaz Khan, President and Khushi Muhammad Khokhar, General Secretary of Punjab Chapter addressed the thousands of workers and declared that the poor were becoming poorer and rich were becoming richer in the country.
They urged the Prime Minister to introduce far reaching economic and social reforms in the country, abolish the abuse of feudalism, and child and bonded labour and high price hike of the essential commodities and aggravating unemployment of the youth and the workers and adopt the National Economic Self Reliance Policy and raise the wages of the workers commensurate with price hike and not to privatize the national public utilities and raise their productivity and develop new hydel power stations on war footing basis.