LAHORE - Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said that labourers and workers are the backbone of a country’s economy and the targets of development cannot be achieved without ensuring their respect and empowerment.
In his message on May Day, he said that there was a need to resolve that all out support would be extended to the labourers in their struggle for their welfare and achievement of their legitimate rights.
The chief minister said that Islam has laid great stress on the dignity of labour and termed labourers as the friend of Allah Almighty. “To make Pakistan an Islamic welfare state in the real sense, the teachings of Islam regarding due respect to labourers and upholding of their rights will have to be implemented in letter and spirit,” he added.  Shahbaz Sharif said that as a result of sacrifices of labour leaders in Chicago, the labourers were granted their due rights which had been denied to them for centuries.
The chief minister said that Punjab government had taken revolutionary steps for the welfare and betterment of labourers and a number of programmes were being implemented successfully for the provision of residential, treatment and educational facilities to the children of labourers. He said that his party has waged a war for ensuring labour rights and no stone would be left unturned for the cause.