Opposition leader in the Senate, Mian Raza Rabbani has condemned the sacking of workers from Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and demanded their immediate reinstatement.
In a statement issued here on Friday, he said that by forced retirement of over 850 employees from groups 3 to 5, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League had proved that it was a business friendly and anti-labour government. He said that PIA management's step to compulsorily retire those workers who had attained the age of 57 years on September 30, 2005 was proof of its anti-labourers policies.
He was of the view that there was an army of directors, general managers and retired army officers in the top management of the PIA who were drawing salaries and allowances worth millions of rupees but the axe had fallen on the low grade employees.
The PPPP leader recalled that in earlier retrenchments in other organisations the low-grade employees were removed from service while on the recommendation of the international donors consultants were hired on huge retainers.
Rabbani said that millions of rupees were being spent on the foreign trips of the top management, renovation of offices and purchase of cars for the management. He added that services of the low-grade employees could be saved if the top management observed austerity.
He expressed apprehension that the government might remove more employees from the services in the name of rightsizing. He also termed the retrenchments as a part of the "Ramazan package of the Prime Minister" that was announced a few days back.