KARACHI: Awami Action Committee (AAC) organised a rally to protest against IMF loans, contract labour system and privatization on Saturday. The protest rally which began from Arts Council of Pakistan and ended at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) was attended by representatives of several political parties, trade union members, social and student organizations, lawyers, intellectuals and people from other walks of life.

National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) Deputy General Secretary Nasir Mansoor took the pulpit to address the rally on the occasion. He said that taking more loans from International Monetary Fund (IMF) to pay the interest of previous loans would further weaken the state of economy and increase poverty.

“Real change would not come without taking revolutionary steps,” said Mansoor, addiAng that the working class would offer tough resistance to the slavery of IMF and its different manifestations. While addressing the participants, Mansoor said that it was not a mere coincidence that labourers and labour unions began receiving threats after the apex judiciary passed anti-union comments. He said that such developments were not just unconstitutional but also disgraceful for seventy million (mn) workers of Pakistan.

While alluding to the recent economic developments, the NTUF leader said that the PTI economic affairs spokesman Asad Umar was justifying increased borrowing from IMF and other international interest based lenders. “This will result in the privatization of more entities, and costly education, healthcare, electricity, water, gas and food,” lamented Mansoor.

Nasir Mansoor told the protestors that the working class had been deprived of their basic rights including the rights under the article 17 of the constitution International Labor Organisation (ILO) Convention 87, United Nations, Universal Human Rights Declaration Article 20 and 23. He explained that the working class was deprived of their right to form trade unions and currently less than 1 percent of Pakistan’s labour force was organised under trade unions. “And yet the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) comments that the trade unions are a hurdle to the industrial progress. This situation is quite worrisome,” said the union leader.

While addressing the protestors, SZABIST Social Sciences Dean Dr. Riaz Sheikh said that the process of privatization had failed in the whole world. “It (privatisation) has created only the worst political, economic and social problems,” said Sheikh adding that a powerful struggle was going on against privatisation in the whole world including South America, Africa, Europe and Asia. “Time has proven that privatisation, instead of catering to local needs, just strengthens the grip of international monetary institutions on economies of countries,” he added.

Dr Riaz Sheikh shared that from 1990 up till 2018, 166 institutions were privatised in Pakistan, including 90 percent of the banks and an amount of Rs476 billion (bn) was obtained from the process. He said that despite the expectation that this money would end the budget deficit and result in economic growth, no benefit came out of it. “The rulers are telling the nation that the country is at the brink of bankruptcy and the financial deficit is more than $25bn,” he said.

Criticising privatisation further, Dr Sheikh said that the privatisation that occurred previously was the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the country. “It shows how the rulers handed important entities to a few families and created monopolies. The history has proved that the privatization is the economic agenda of neo-liberal forces which negates the basic concept of a welfare state,” said Dr Sheikh adding that the programs of IMF and other such institutions were lethal weapons against the progress and welfare of common man. “In presence of these programs, the slogans of making a welfare state is a great farce,” said Sheikh.

People Labour Bureau’s Central Leader Habibiuddin Junaidi informed the gathering that as per the labour laws of Pakistan, the contract labour system or third party contract system was illegal but this anti-labour system was present in up to 95 percent of industrial enterprises, financial firms and other corporate entities.

Referring to a verdict passed by the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) on December 8, 2017 Junaidi said that the SCP had ruled against the contract labour system and issued an order to regularise all contractual workers. He added that under this verdict showed that the contract system was against the constitutional concepts of equity, natural justice and non-discrimination.

The protestors expressed their concern over the growing crisis and said that the nexus between judiciary, rulers and elite class, with patronage of international monetary institutions was not a good omen for the working class. They said that the workers had to offer an organised resistance to coming economic and political crisis.

The rally leaders demanded that IMF loans should not be taken to save the country from the quagmire of loans. They urged the government to stop the ongoing process of privatisation and end the contract labour system as per the instructions of higher judiciary. The protestors also demanded that all workers be regularised. They also demanded that the CJP withdraw his remarks against trade unions and safeguard the legal and constitutional rights of workers.

The speakers included PILER leader Karamat Ali, National Party leader Ramzan Memon, Home Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) leader Zahra Khan, Tabqati Jadojahad leader Janat Hussain, Awami Workers Pay (AWP) leader Yousuf Masti Khan, Railway Workers Union leader Manzoor Mallah, PIA labor leader Shaikh Majeed, DSF leader Naghma Sheikh, NTUF Sindh leader Riaz Abbasi, Basheer Ahmed Mehmoodani, Railway Workers leader Manzoor Razi, HBWWF leader Saira Feroze, PC Hotel Workers Union leader Ghulam Mehboob, Inqilabi Adarish Front leader Mushtaq Ali Shan, Fisher folk Forum leader Saeed Baloch, Sindh Agriculttural General Workers Union (CBA) leader Ali Ahmed Panhwar, Aurat Foundation member Mehnaz Rahman and others.

Published in Daily Times, August 12th 2018.