President Zardari has taken the first steps towards empowering Pakistan’s working class. There is no doubt that Pakistani workers are the heart and soul of the nation and it is on the shoulders of this group of sadly overlooked people that the future rests.
But the tide is changing. President Zardari has outlined a future where our workers are not treated as servants but as partners. The government has made it clear that laws aimed at protecting and strengthening the Pakistani people are to be passed.
This past Friday, President Zardari was in Karachi where he signed two laws: one to repeal the Removal from Services Ordinance and a second to amend the Services Tribunal Act. The Removal from Services Ordinance was a bad law as it conferred arbitrary powers on the authorities in violation of the fundamental rights of workers, he said at the event.
He congratulated the prime minister, labor minister and parliament for changing the service laws. Calling himself trustee of the philosophy of Bhutto Shaheed, Zardari said time has arrived to return back rights to the people.
“We continue to be inspired and guided by the policy principles laid down in the manifesto by the Shaheed leaders,” he added. He vowed that the present government would not abandon the labor, peasants and the wage earners in their just struggle.
The President’s attitude is a welcome one, and Pakistan will greatly benefit should elected officials share similar declarations and actions.
