KARACHI:The incumbent federal government is the enemy of labourers as the leaders have looted the public to make offshore companies and accounts, said Pakistan Peoples Party Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday.
"They can make Orange trains, but cannot construct hospitals," Bilawal said during a Labour Day event at Chief Minister House in the city.
Bilawal lamented thatinstitutions like the Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution and Workers Welfare Board are not properly empowered.
"Our provincial government wants to solve these issues but the federal government is using delaying tactics," he said.
Bilawal alsospoke about labour courts, saying the purpose they were made for was not being fulfilled.
"These courts are not helping the labourers get their rights," he said. "We request the federal federal government to make labour courts effective with the cooperation of Sindh High Court."
Bilawal added that Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had always worked for farmers, labourers and the youth.
"He became the voice of the labourers and brought about reforms in the country," the PPP chairperson said. "No one can separate PPP from labourers."
Also present on the occasion, Sindh CM Murad Ali Shah announced to distribute Rs500 million among labourers in the form of marriage, death and education grants.
He said Rs 1 billion have been planned for labourers by the Workers Welfare Board.
"The remaining Rs500 million are in the pipeline and will be distributed by this year among labourers," he maintained. "In fact this event has not been held just to mark Labour Day, but to carry out the first phase of distribution of the amount."
He pointed outthe PPP has passed 13 laws for labourers in five years, including a safety and health policy. A draft labour policy is in its last stages, the chief minister said.
In response to the PPP chairperson's accusations raised at the incumbent federal government, PakistanMuslim League-Nawaz leader Talal Chaudhry said Bilawal lives in London and Dubai for three weeks of the month.
"The one week that he stays in Pakistan, he does part-time politics," Chaudhry said. "Their party has been in the government in the federation as well as the province more than once, but Bilawal should ask his father what they have given to the public in the name of bread, shelter and clothing."
While referring to the statement that Bilawal made about the Metro bus project, Chaudhry said the service is for the people who belong to low-income backgrounds as they get to travel in the Metro bus for just Rs20.
"Those who own Land Cruisers do not use Metro buses," he said. "Likewise, when the Orange Line project will complete, a poor person will be able to travel for less."