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KARACHI: The International Workers’ Day, also called Labour Day, was observed across Sindh by staging rallies and demonstrations on roads and holding seminars and declamation contests at educational and other institutions on Thursday.
The events were organised by trade unions, political parties, human rights bodies and civil society organisations.
Hundreds of thousands of public and private sector employees participated in the rallies held in different areas of Karachi and district headquarters including Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Mirpurkhas, Badin, Thatta, Sujawal, Sanghar, Mithi, Umerkot, Jacobabad, Shikarpur, Ghotki and Kandhkot. Rallies were also held in smaller towns and rural areas of Sindh.
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The participants paid homage to the workers who laid down their lives during their movement in Chicago in 1886 for the rights of workers. They also paid tributes to all those who took active part in the Chicago Labour Movement.
In most of the rallies, participants displayed banners and placards inscribed with demands of fair wages, social security, workplace safety and better working conditions at their workplaces.
Rallies, seminars, conferences and walks staged across Sindh
Labour leaders and activists of various trade unions highlighted issues like notorious contract system and denial of trade union activities at private business, trade and commercial institutions.
They also called for due rights to be ensured for daily wage earners, farm workers, employees of formal and informal sectors, as well as all industrial workers.
In Hyderabad, a number of rallies were taken out to mark the day.
The main labour day rally was organised by the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union (CBA). It was led by the union’s president Abdul Latif Nizamani, Mehboob Ali Qureshi, Iqbal Khan, Azam Khan, Sarwat Jehan and others.
The leaders strongly opposed privatisation of national enterprises and called for fixing Rs37,000 a month as the minimum wage.
Another big rally in the city was organized by the National Labour Federation (NLF). Its president Qayyum Bhatti along with Mubeen Rajput, Aijaz Hussain and others, expressed their concern over the rising graph of unemployment in the country and noted that job-seekers were still facing hunger. They said that labour laws did exist but employers flouted them.
Sindh Taraqqi-pasand Party (STP)’s Hyderabad division staged a rally under the leadership of Pir Gambal Shah, Jan Mohammad Junejo and others. They opposed corporate farming and usurpation of land resources in Sindh by federal government.
All Pakistan Clerks Association-Aman group leaders Ghulam Nabi Solangi, Sarfaraz Rajput told participants of a rally that price-hike remained unabated. They said that the minimum monthly wage of a worker must be fixed equivalent to the price of one tola (12gram) of gold.
National Trade Union Federation and Home Based Women Workers Federation representatives Jamila Latif, Nisar Leghari, Shaheena Leghari, Shazia Shakeel and others staged a walk in the city which was participated by women home-based workers including bangle workers.
Pakistan Muslim League-Functional (PML-F)‘s Hyderabad leader Rafiq Magsi, Mehran Mazdoor Union’s Ghulam Rasool Memon and Sindh Peoples Labour Federation’s Syed Kamal Shah also staged rallies to mark the day.
A joint Labour Day rally was organised by the Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign, OGDCL Mazdoor Ittehad Union, Nadra Employees Bahali Tehreek, Mehran Mazdoor Federation and Mehran Workers Union.
The Sindh Community Foundation (SCF), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Foundation, organised a series of community awareness sessions in the Ibrahim Khaskheli and Meho Machhi villages of Matiari district.
SCF head Javed Hussain discussed the challenges being faced by women workers at their workplaces due to labor rights violations.
The Society for Protection of Rights of the Child held a rally outside the local press club to mark Labour Day. It was led by the society’s regional manager Kashif Bajir.
He and other leaders, including Punho Bheel of the Brick Kiln Workers Federation, Assistant Director Kamal Khawaja of the labour department, Deputy Director Fatima Naz of the Social Welfare Department and civil society activist Marvi Awan highlight the plight of brick kiln workers, farm workers and bonded families. They called for effective reforms in this sector.
The All Sindh Lady Health Workers and Employees Union organised a walk and a conference in collaboration with the Public Service International and Workers Education and Research Organisation on the Sindhi Language Authority premises.
Those who spoke at the conference included HRCP vice chairperson Qazi Khizar, noted analyst Jami Chandio, Haleema Leghari, Shama Gullani and Mir Zulfiqar.
In Larkana also, a host of processions were taken out to mark the day with participants’ common demands being abolition of the contract system and a 100pc raise in workers’ salaries.
A gathering was organised by the World Federation of Trade Unions a session in the Larkana Arts Council where leaders of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation and other allied labour organisations highlighted the poor state of the labour class. Comrade Abdul Ghani Kalhoro, Barrister Kazim Abbasi, Zulfikar Brohi and others also shed light on the Chicago Labour Movement.
The speakers said still labourers were force to work for 16 hours, instead of eight, a day while inequalities with workers continued unabated. They demanded enhancing the pension amount in the light of skyrocketing prices of common commodities. Labour leaders Altaf Hussain Malgani, Bilawal Aheer and others led the another rally taken out under the flag of Watandost Mazdoor Federation Pakistan. The participants assembled at Jinnah Bagh and raised slogans.
They called for registration of all workers with the EOBI and Workers Welfare Board to ensure their legitimate rights.
Nisar Ahmed Shaikh, the regional chairman of Wapda Hydroelectric Workers Union (CBA), Abdullah Soomro, Mehmood Pathan and others led a procession which was taken out from the SE office. It also converged on Jinnah Bagh to hold a demonstration against the privatisation of national institutions.
Other rallies were organised by the Mehnatkash Labour Union of the Larkana Municipal Corporation and labour unions of various other business and trade organisations.
In Sukkur, rallies were taken out by the Rickshaw Union, Rehrhi Union and other workers’ rights bodies.
Kandhkot’s Anaj Mandi labourers held a rally from the grain market to the local press club.
A number of Labour Day events were held in different cities and towns of Mirpurkhas, Shaheed Benazirabad, Naushahro Feroze, Sanghar, Thatta, Sujawal, Badin and Tharparkar districts.
Mohammad Hussain Khan in Hyderabad, M.B. Kalhoro in Larkana, Waseem Shamsi in Sukkur, Zulfiqar Memon in Nawabshah, Ghulam Hussain Khuwaja in Thatta, Imtiaz Dharani in Mithi and Mohammad Hashim Khan Bhurgari also contributed to this report
Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2025