LAHORE: All Pakistan Workers Confederation (APWC) has appealed to the prime minister and the provincial chief ministers to fix Rs15,000 as minimum pension for industrial and commercial sector workers under Old Age Employees Institution Act 1974.

`Workers need more healthcare af ter attaining superannuation and medical facilities to them should also be restored under Social Security Employees Ordinance, said the appeal issued after a meeting of the constituent trade unions` representatives of the APWC on Tuesday.

It said the retired commercial and industrial workers were getting Rs5,254 a month while provision of free medical facilities to them had also been withdrawn.

`Ironically, the pay and other fringe benefits of parliamentarians have been increased by 150 percent.

They are also entitled to treatment abroad on stateexpense. The federal and Punjab governments have announced 10pc increase in salaries and pension while the increase has been 15pc in Sindh in the 2017-18 budget which is meagre compared to inflation rate,` said the appeal.

On the occasion, veteran trade union leader and APWC general secretary Khurshid Ahmed urged the government to adopt national economic self-reliance policy by reducing expenditures on the offices of the president and the prime minister besides other administration bodies and divert these resources for development of water reservoirs and for production of cheap electricity.

He also appealed to the federal and provincial governments besides industrialists and businessmen to make payment of one-month salary as bonus on Eidul Fitr to their employees. Staff Reporter