ISLAMABAD, Dec 16: Leaders of workers’ unions and federations demanded on Sunday allocation of special quota for labour representatives in parliament.

They said special quota had been allocated in the parliament for minorities, women, technocrats and ulema but no representation had been given to workers even though they formed the biggest segment of the population.

They said that at least 20 per cent of the seats should be reserved for workers’ representatives.

CDA Mazdoor Union secretary-general Chaudhry Yasin said it was a great injustice that about 10 million registered and over 30 million unregistered workers had no representation in the parliament.

He said that those sitting in the assemblies or Senate had little understanding of the problems being faced by the working classes.

“Unregistered workers are the worst-affected but there is no law to protect them, no social security, no health or education facilities,” said Mr Yasin.

The CDA union leader called upon the PPP to fulfil its promise of being a pro-worker party and specify quota for labour representatives in the parliament.

Pakistan Banking Employees Federation chairman Malik Hussain said that landlords, capitalists, Chaudhrys, Waderas, Nawabs and Khans had monopoly over assemblies and there was no representation of workers in the parliament.

“Workers have nowhere to go to resolve their grievances because of lack of representation in the assemblies,” he said.

“We try to approach different public representatives but they seldom listen to our grievances. Amendments should be made to the Constitution and special quota be allocated for workers’ representatives.”