LAHORE: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Wednesday that the government was striving to bring about substantial changes in the national economy and to recover billions of rupees being wasted due to corruption.

“Pakistan would soon become a powerful country through a functioning of a fair system and on the basis of hard work by the employers and the employees including workers,” the premier said, while addressing a gathering of workers on the International Labour Day at his residence, here Wednesday.

The premier said the country’s economic situation was challenging but they were striving to turn it around, with collective efforts and sincerity.

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“Pakistan is destined to get a dignified status in the comity of nations,” he said, adding: “We were striving to end corruption and expressed resolve that all the organs of government and other state institutions with their collective efforts would carve a niche for Pakistan among the comity of nations.”

Referring to his recent visit of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Shehbaz said that the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other leadership desired to see Pakistan moving on the path of progress.

The Saudi business and investors’ delegation is due to Pakistan which would increase businesses and job opportunities in the country, he added.

Addressing the labourers, the PM said his father Mian Sharif was also a worker who attained his earlier education in Amritsar and during 30s settled in Lahore, where he worked along with his brothers in a steel factory as a labourer.

He said the government fully acknowledges the hard work of the labourers and is determined to ensure their welfare and prosperity. He urged businessmen and investors to take care of the development and welfare of their workers as Pakistan cannot make progress without the prosperity of labourers.

“Pakistan will make progress if investors and labourers work in unison under a judicious system,” he said and called for creating opportunities to the children of the working class, where they too can become doctors, engineers and excel in politics as well.

The PM said that in the upcoming fiscal budget, they would try to provide more relief to the labour class.

He asked the business people and well to do people to think beyond their families and businesses and invest in certain education and health projects for the deprived classes like those established in the developed countries.

Shehbaz said, “It was not an objective behind the creation of Pakistan that there would be a difference between the rich and the poor.

Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah led the movement in which the people had offered huge sacrifices,“ adding: “The motive of creation of Pakistan was the establishment of a welfare state in which everyone would have the equal opportunities to excel in life on the basis of one’s capacity and ability and take the country forward.”

The PM further said that the labourers and workers worked hard in the most difficult conditions and helped their employers generate their businesses.

Both were like the wheels of the same carriage and their work led to progress and prosperity of the nation and country.

He admitted that due to inflation, the life for the common man had become hard, the prices of petroleum products had been reduced but it could not be a substitute for the price hike as the labour class had to meet the requirements of education for their sons and daughters, treatment for their parents and other daily expenditures and were living from hand to mouth.

Shehbaz Sharif said that under the teachings of the Holy Quran and the Prophet’s (Peace Be Upon Him) messages, it was their abiding duty to bridge the differences between the rich and the poor.

He also recited Allama Iqbal’s verse about plight of labourers and workers and said that these couplets represented a powerful message, reflecting voice of millions of workers in Pakistan.

Earlier, Chairman PM Youth Programme Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan said the government had launched the personal loan scheme for the workers.

He added that under prime minister’s tenure as chief minister of Punjab, Danish schools and Educational Endowment Funds were established. He highlighted various programmes for the welfare of workers.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024