JI not to allow privatization of Railways: Senator Sirajul Haq

Lahore: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Pakistan, Senator Sirajul Haq, has  said that the capitalists and feudal lords ruling the country were  selling out important national institutions to their favourites in phases as would place the country at the mercy of the aliens.

Speaking as chief guest at a workers convention organized by the National Labour Federation at Railway carriage workshop Mughalpura on Monday, he however said that the JI would not allow the sellout of these institutions and would raise the voice for the workers’ rights in every forum.

The JI chief said it was an irony that the government which was duty bound to provide facilities including employment to the people was trying to snatching the last morsel of food from the poor.

He said it was the duty of the rulers to rehabilitate the institutions running in losses, as their privatization was not the answer.

He warned that if those living in palaces tried to deprive the poor of their basic rights, their palaces would also not be safe.

Senator Sirajul Haq said that whatever development and growth was seen in the motherland, was  because of the hard work of the workers. He said it was a pity that the present rulers had been in power for nearly two years, but they had neither implemented their election manifesto nor given any labour policy. The capitalists sitting in the assemblies were least concerned with the problems of the poor or in their solution.

The JI chief stressed that the workers must have a share in the profits of the industries and the produce from the lands.

Senator Sirajul Haq urged the workers and the general public to join the JI for the enforcement of the Islamic system, and added that as long as the just Islamic system was not enforced, the present system based on exploitation and tyrannical system would prevail.

Addressing the moot, JI Punjab Chief Dr Syed Waseem Akhtar, said that he would raise the workers’ voice in the Punjab assembly and spare no effort for the solution of their problems.

He said that the elite had filled Swiss banks with the wealth earned by workers while the workers in the country were starving.

NLF President Shamsur Rahman Swati, presented a charger of demands to the government. He urged the government to refrain from privatization of more industrial units as the privatization of earlier units had already done huge losses to the national economy and caused large scale unemployment. He demanded raising minimum wages to Rs. 25, 000, placing he National Service Commission under the Supreme Court, registration of 60 million workers for social security and EOB, allocation of the Workers Welfare Fund for all workers and raise in salaries and pensions in proportion to price spiral.