Civil Society Organizations Express Concern Over Anti Workers Policy and Actions of the Punjab Government

Civil Society Organizations Express Concern Over Anti Workers Policy and Actions of the Punjab Government Karachi, 29 March 2011: The Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research (PILER) and the Pakistan Fisher folk Forum (PFF), two major civil society organizations have expressed grave concern over the brutal use of force against peasants by the Punjab government. Punjab government used police force on Monday against peacefully protesting peasants in Khanewal and Okara districts which resulted in wounding more than 100 peasants including women and children and arrest of over 40 workers. Police used teargas and baton charged thousands of peasants who were marching towards Lahore to present their demands to the government of Punjab. PILER and PFF, in a statement released here on Tuesday, condemned the use of violence against the peasants and stressed that the incident exposed Punjab governments’ claims of good governance and poor-friendly systems. “This brutal action has proved that the current government in Punjab is the most ruthless regime in the country.” The statement says that on the one hand, the Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif has been talking about peoples’ revolution and on other hand his regime unleashed a reign of terror against poor workers. “If this is his revolution then people in Pakistan, particularly workers and peasants, will never accept it.” Civil Society organizations have said that it’s not the Khanewal incident alone that has exposed the Punjab Government’s anti worker policies. The PML-N -led capitalist government in Punjab boasts of a history of anti workers steps that include continued ban on labour inspections and inserting provisions in the recently approved provincial Industrial Relations Act that blatantly violate the rights of the workers. PILER and PFF have further added that peasants from Khanewal and Okara under the aegis of the AMP are demanding ownership rights of the land which they been tilling for decades. About one million tenants work on farmland owned by the Punjab government in South Punjab. A large proportion of the government land cultivated by the poor peasants for decades in Okara and Khanewal districts is under the control of military and other agencies which have imposed unjust arrangements. Mazareen (peasants) have primary right over the land as they have shed blood, sweat and tears to turn the barren pieces of land into cultivable, lush green farms. PILER and PFF statement says that an overwhelming majority of the rural population consists of landless people and it is time the government addresses their long-standing demands and allots land to them. The two civil society organizations have warned that by ignoring the genuine demands of the landless and the marginalized population, the government is not only fuelling discontent and unrest, it is also violating the Article 38 of the constitution that binds the state to provide housing, employment, and social services to the people without any discrimination, and prohibits the monopoly of a few over themeans of productive resourcs. PILER Contact (Email: piler@cyber.net.pk/ 92 21 36351145) PFF Contact (Email: pakistanfisherfolk@hotmail.com/ 92 21 35090543)