Labourers urged to prefer talks over violence

Federal Minister for Information and Media Development, Sheikh Rashid Ahmad on Sunday urged upon the labour community to adopt the process of negotiations instead of violence for the solution of their problems. Addressing a ceremony held in connections with the May Day here under the auspices of All Pakistan Federation of Labour (Durrani Group), he said, "during my political carrier I have learnt that resorting to violence cannot solve any problem and negotiation is the only way to achieve ones objective."
He asked labourers to unite themselves and think rationally for the solution of their problems as the rich people had always used poor against the poor.
"None of the big men has ever been sentenced by the courts in corruption or other criminal cases as they get benefit of the lacuna in the law," he said.
The minister said that the religious and political parties in the Frontier province had used the innocent people for their political means instead of solving their problems.
Criticising the role of peoples' representatives, the minister said they should have checked price hike and unemployment in their respective constituencies instead of engaging themselves in unnecessary activities, which left the peoples problems uncertain.
He said that the Muttehida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA) had disappointed the people who voted it to power, as the alliance had been witnessed playing with the emotions of the people instead of initiating to address the real problems of the masses.
"Islam is our religion, our identity and it teaches us a way of life but in fact the champions of Islam are not capable to run affairs of the state," he criticised.
Talking about the issue of religious column in passport, he said it was exploited by the MMA otherwise such a column had never existed in the passport of other Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia.
Giving his opinion regarding the US and allied forces' attack on Afghanistan, the minister said that the policy of General Pervez Musharraf to give logistic support to the US forces for its attack against Afghanistan was right, as there was no better alternate at that time.
"If the MMA leaders think that they had any alternate they should have presented it timely instead of lunching agitation against the government," he said.
He said that before confronting with any country, one should consider his own power.
The minister was of the view that the MMA leaders preaching Jehad but they did not send their own children for the sacred cause and only children of the poor being used as fuel for their motives and now neither any mosque nor any Church was safe in the country.
He urged the need to initiate a positive movement in Peshawar to make every person educated so that no political party or group could deceive them easily in future.
He said that the present government had given licenses for 15- satellite channels and the next session of the parliament would approve licenses for other 37-channels. "The two Pashto language satellite channels were now being watched in Afghanistan, which is a good sign," he said. He also urged media people to highlight the problems of labour classes.