Pakistani Workers Unite in Lahore Conference, Chart Struggle Path Against Anti-Worker Measures

The Left-wing Haqooq-e-Khalq Party (HKP) organised its first workers’ conference at Kot Lakhpat, Lahore, Pakistan on July 28, with the participation of representatives of trade unions and workers. The conference vowed to launch a popular struggle against the Pakistan government’s anti-worker policies in the coming days.   

Ammar Ali Jan, general secretary of the HKP, told Peoples Dispatch that apart from the nationalisation of Independent Power Plants (IPP) and government’s attempts to scuttle workers rights through the introduction of a unified labor code, the conference’s immediate focus was to raise the issue of non-implementation of minimum wage law in the country.  

Despite increasing the minimum wages to 37,000 Pakistani Rupee (PKR) or around USD 133, the government has failed to take action against the majority of the factories in the country, which are still forcing the workers to accept a pay far below the legal minimum wage, Ali Jan told Peoples Dispatch. The conference has resolved to take the fight to the streets to make the government implement its own law. 

Baba Latif, one of the leaders of HKP and a veteran trade unionist, declared there will be a demonstration at government’s offices in the country in the coming days if the demand for immediate implementation of the minimum wage is not fulfilled. 

Maulana Shahbaz, a factory worker, also spoke at the conference. He has been working in a shoe manufacturing unit in Lahore for over two decades, apart from performing the role of a religious leader. He has been agitating for the implementation of minimum wage laws for over a year now, despite threats by management. 

A day after Shahbaz spoke in the conference, he was fired from his job by the management of Chawla group. HKP and around 300 workers at the factory immediately decided to go on a solidarity strike against the move, demanding his restoration. HKS has given a call for further action in the coming days on the matter. 

Attempts to appease international capital 

Because of the contracts signed with the IPPs and under pressure from the IMF, the Pakistani government has failed to control the massively inflated electricity bills in the country. Most of peoples’ earnings are going towards paying these bills, which sometimes are around PKR 20,000 to 30,000 per month (USD 70 to USD 100). This is a kind of slavery which the state has unleashed on the people in Pakistan, Ali Jan told Peoples Dispatch. This can only end if the government either nationalizes the IPPs or reworks the contracts signed with them.   

Apart from electricity bills, the new government in Pakistan has imposed severe taxes, including on some essential commodities, such as milk, during the budget presented in the beginning of July. The HKP has been agitating against the budget provisions. The imposition of those taxes and withdrawal of subsidies has impacted the majority of Pakistani households, Ammar Ali Jan said in a press conference. HKP, along with other left parties, Mazdoor Kisan Party (MKP) and Awami Workers Party (AWP) has vowed to carry out nationwide mobilization against the budget and on its charter of demands. The workers’ conference was a part of that call. 

Government policies were not made with the interests of the people in Pakistan in mind, but instead to serve the interests of the global capital under IMF dictates, several speakers underlined in the conference. 

Meanwhile, provincial governments in Punjab and Sindh, in collaboration with the International Labor Organization (ILO) are currently trying to put all the existing laws dealing with employment and labor into one unified labor code. Workers and union members have opposed the proposal codes claiming they are draconian and were formulated without their consultations. The codes, if implemented, will take away some of the basic rights from the workers, including the right to strike and form unions and introduce anti-labor policies such as contractualisation.  

HKP has rejected the unified labor code, claiming it is done by the Pakistani government to serve the interests of international capital. It has issued a charter of demand which asks the government to desist from such a move. 

Ali Jan also told Peoples Dispatch that left parties have decided to go to the court against the government’s move to implement a unified code.