ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Leader of the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) in the Senate, Senator Sherry Rehman has said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government had sacked more people than they gave employment during the last two and a half years.

"What happened to the 10 million jobs they had promised? Instead of fulfilling their promise of creating more jobs, the government is busy selling national institutions and firing employees. First, they fired 450 PTDC employees, followed by 750 from Radio Pakistan, now they are laying off 14,000 to 7,000 PIA employees and a plan to lay off 9,350 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills has already been approved," the PPP leader said, while commenting on the downsizing of employees by the government.

She said that the people were already suffering due to the pandemic and this government was hell-bent on making things more difficult for them.

"This "loot sale" of institutions in the name of restructuring is unacceptable. The federal government needs to focus on presenting revival plans of the public institutions," she said in a statement on Saturday.

Condemning the government's plans of sacking more employees, the parliamentary leader of the PPP said, "This decision is illegal and unconstitutional. 'Tabahi Sarkar' keeps setting new records of going back on their promises."

"On the one hand, Prime Minister Imran Khan has established a National Job Portal to provide employment opportunities to the youth, and was seen defending CM Punjab for giving jobs to his relatives but on the other hand, his government is taking away the livelihood of so many people. Why is it that the rules are different for everyone?" she added.

She said that firing employees was not the way to reform and restructure state institutions.

She said that the government first needed to address its "incompetence and mismanagement."

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020