Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, Member of the Central Executive Committee of the Pakistan Peoples Party and Incharge of the Peoples Labour Bureau Pakistan, has outright rejected the provincial budgets presented today by the governments of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. Terming both budgets as mere copies of the federal budget regarding employees, he said that these provincial governments have also disappointed the working class and public sector employees.

Chaudhry Manzoor criticized the Sindh government’s 12% salary increase—although slightly different from the federal government—as insufficient. “A minimum 50% raise in salaries is essential to provide relief to the salaried class,” he emphasized.

He further stated that the implementation of the Charter of Demand issued by the Peoples Labour Bureau—which was also presented in the Senate today by Senator Shahadat Hussain Awan—is the only way to resolve the issues faced by workers, laborers, and employees.

Reiterating the Bureau’s demands, Chaudhry Manzoor called for a comprehensive review of the budget proposals. Key demands include:

• A minimum 50% increase in salaries and pensions,

• Merger of all ad-hoc allowances into basic salary,

• 100% increase in EOBI pensions,

• Market-aligned raise in house rent and conveyance allowances for government employees,

• Increase in death grant from Rs. 800,000 to Rs. 1,000,000, and marriage grant from Rs. 400,000 to Rs. 500,000.

He strongly urged the government to immediately halt all processes of privatization, outsourcing, and closure of key national institutions such as Utility Stores, PASSCO, NFC, PWD, and Pakistan Steel Mills.

Chaudhry Manzoor demanded the immediate reinstatement of all terminated employees, including the 5,000 Utility Stores workers, and the regularization of all contract and daily-wage workers, following the precedent set by the previous PPP government.

He further called for:

• Nationwide registration of agricultural, industrial, and domestic workers in EOBI and the Workers Welfare Fund—as already implemented by the Sindh government,

• Immediate withdrawal of the harsh policy limiting family pensions to 10 years after the pensioner’s death, terming it a cruel and inhumane decision.

Chaudhry Manzoor concluded that any budget that fails to deliver justice to the working class is unjustifiable and must be revisited without delay.