Pakistan is a home of 196 million people which is world’s 7th largest country by population in the world. Labour Day is being celebrated every year on 1st May. It has been celebrated as a national holiday since 1894 around the globe. In this regard I would like to start with famous saying of prophet Muhammad (PBUH) as he said “Pay off a labourer before his sweat dries up” which means pay to labourer for the services that you rendered in time with honesty. We have totally ignored the teachings of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
In my beloved country I have to say unfortunately blood is cheaper than water as labourers blood is sucked by our industrialists and landlords. They are not getting paid for what they deserve for their work. If any drop of blood lefts in their body it’s been sucked by our government in form of load shedding and direct or indirect taxes on goods and services. This inequality is causing to increase divide between rich and poor day by day in our society.
Internationally there is a standard measure to determine people’s progress of any nation. It’s called Human development index which was made by Pakistani Scientist Dr Mehboob Ul Haq in 1990. This measure is used to rank countries on basis of education, employment and life expectancy to determine how developed that country is in modern world. Unfortunately Pakistan is ranked on 146th on this scale.
Under umbrella of Cultural festivals billions were spent on dance and music to promote the culture in Sindh. Who makes the culture of any particular place or country? Yes people make the culture when people start dying with hunger what culture you want to promote, no culture can be promoted in this way. Wearing T Shirts with logo of Superman this is what we have to promote? People dying with hunger don’t want to be a superman they need jobs and look after to get livelihood of their families. Instead of spending on cultural activities it’s better to spend this money for encouragement of labourer’s children like giving them scholarships for their education and health.
Every year we celebrate Labour’s day and then we forget it, this year we step forward and held first south Asian Labour conference in Lahore. Why was it limited for Punjab only? Does it mean no labourers exist in other provinces Mr Prime minister? Have we ever thought to get better the lives of theses labourers? Can we make any change in their lives by spending millions on metro buses and by starting Benazir income supports scheme for labours.
It’s much better if we spend more of our GDP on education to equip and train these labourers on scientific basis with high tech knowledge and skills to compete in modern world. Pakistanis are the people with best brains of the world. Pakistan is an agricultural country to whom God has bestowed with all types of weather.
We don’t need to get anything from outside. The real difference in the lives of labourers in my opinion can only bring by implementing FAST TRACK PLAN for labourers (FAT PL) to educate them on modern lines. In this way not only they will serve their family better but also be the cause to bring positive image of Pakistani labourers in front of the world. Only there is a need to push Pakistanis because as Iqbal said “zara nam ho to yeh matti bari zarkhez hai saqi”.
