Up to three thousand workers of Pakistan Railways from across its seven divisions convened on Railways Headquarters on Tuesday and warned the railway’s administration and the elected government that continued negligence with regards to the affairs of Pakistan Railways will result not only in serious labour unrest but also irreversible losses to ordinary working people.
The protest was called by the Rail Bachao Ittehad which features the Railway Workers Union (Open Line), PREM Union and Railway Mehnatkash Union.
The President of Railway Workers Union, Aashiq Chaudhry, said that the ‘restructuring’ agenda of the International Financial Institutions (IFI) has completely failed despite the induction of highly paid private-sector professionals into PR. He also said that conditions are being deliberately created to pave the way for railways’ privatisation. They said that if no serious action is forthcoming by the summer months, the RBI will issue a complete strike call.
