LAHORE: Ameer, Jamaat e Islami, Senator Sirajul Haq, has said that the government was planning mass privatisation of the national institutions only to oblige its favourites.
Talking to a National Labour Federation delegation at Mansoora on Monday, he however said that the JI would put up a strong resistance to any attempt of privatisation and would stand for the workers’ rights.
Sirajul Haq said that the privatisation in the past had created numerous problems including large scale unemployment of workers. He said the government had not given any account of the gains and losses of the privatisation done in the past while plans were afoot to sell out more state institutions in the name of privatisation.
He said that the privatisation was being done on the dictates of the IMF against national interest. There was a plan to sell out as many as 68 national institutions on throw away prices and mostly, the people in the government were interested in the purchase which implied that privatisation would not be transparent.
Sirajul Haq said that it was the bounden duty of a government to utilise its energies to strengthen institutions to ensure national development and to create job opportunities for the workers. However, he said, that the rulers in Islamabad were busy in the loot sale of the institutions.
He said that the national institutions had assets running into billions and the national and foreign companies had their eyes on that.
Sirajul Haq said that the farmers, Haris and workers were leading miserable lives. Their children were without education had health facilities. Exploitation in the society had crossed all limits. While the rich were growing richer, the poor were getting poorer. All the resources in the country were in the hands of the rich and the millions of poor did not get two times meals. He said that the industrial development in the country was largely due to the hard work of the labourers but the workers did not get a fair deal from the government or the employer.
The JI chief said that the labour laws framed at provincial level after the 18th amendment were against the spirit of the constitution and should be reviewed.
