Karachi (Digital Post) Democratic Workers Union, State Bank Banking Services Corporation Secretary General Liaquat Ali Sahi, while expressing his views to the workers on the results of Referendum 2026, has said that the recent referendum was not merely a competition between two unions, but basically it was a referendum of the workers against those policies of the administration as a result of which employees are deprived of their basic and constitutional rights. He said that the clear manifesto of the Democratic Workers Union is permanent recruitment in clerical and non-clerical cadres, making contract workers permanent, and giving third-party contract workers the right to vote. The administration is not ready to accept these demands, while the Labour Union stands with the administration\u2019s position. In such circumstances, the workers have used their ballot paper through the referendum in favour of their rights.<\/p>\n
Liaquat Ali Sahi said that the real competition was not between the Democratic Workers Union and the Labour Union, but between the policies of the administration and the basic rights of workers. He alleged that the Labour Union is actually playing the role of a \u201cpocket union.\u201d According to him, at the national level, in institutions where the administration patronizes pocket unions, the existence of trade unions does not remain, and workers are also unable to effectively protect themselves.<\/p>\n
He said that in the State Bank as well, in 1997, the administration allegedly attempted to completely eliminate the trade union through its supported elements. However, the Democratic Workers Union continued its struggle under his leadership and, in the light of labour laws and the Constitution of the country, maintained the existence of the union. As a result of this struggle, along with the protection of workers, numerous benefits were also achieved.<\/p>\n
Liaquat Ali Sahi said that in 2018, the Democratic Workers Union, through legal proceedings, secured the right to vote for contract workers. However, according to him, the trade union was weakened by voting for the Labour Union, which was working on the administration\u2019s instructions, in two referendums. He said that in 2023, the workers once again expressed their confidence in the Democratic Workers Union and made it successful, after which the union not only secured benefits for contract workers but also reached an agreement with the administration regarding permanent recruitment and making contract workers permanent. When the agreement was not implemented, the Democratic Workers Union filed a petition in the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) to ensure implementation of the agreement.<\/p>\n
He said that the manifesto of the Democratic Workers Union in Referendum 2026 was clear: permanent recruitment in clerical and non-clerical cadres, making contract workers permanent, and giving third-party contract workers the right to vote. According to Liaquat Ali Sahi, the administration does not want to implement these three demands, while the Labour Union takes pride in standing with the administration\u2019s position. Despite this, the workers faced the referendum in extremely difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
He said that according to the available announced results, the Labour Union has a lead of only five votes over the Democratic Workers Union, while the result of eight votes from Khuzdar is still pending. According to him, out of the eight votes from Khuzdar, five votes are clearly in favour of the Democratic Workers Union, while the remaining three votes hold a decisive position.<\/p>\n
He further said that from some polling booths, such votes of the Democratic Workers Union were rejected on the grounds that the stamp on the flower symbol was not clear. The Democratic Workers Union has challenged these rejected votes and demanded a recount.<\/p>\n
Liaquat Ali Sahi said that the ballot papers posted by NIRC for Khuzdar arrived only one day before the referendum, for which the relevant Authorized Officer is responsible for ensuring the availability of ballot papers in a timely manner. He said that the Democratic Workers Union has demanded in writing that deciding the final results of the referendum without including the Khuzdar results should be considered legally questionable.<\/p>\n
The Secretary General said that during Referendum 2026, the Democratic Workers Union submitted 403 memberships of third-party workers and demanded that they be included in the voter list.<\/p>\n
He said that according to their position, under sub-section (xxxiii) of Section 2 of IRA 2012, permanent, contract and through-contractor workers who have completed the prescribed period of employment, that is, 90 days, are entitled to vote. However, according to him, the Authorized Officer did not prepare the voter list in accordance with this legal position.<\/p>\n
Liaquat Ali Sahi said that the Democratic Workers Union first challenged this matter before the full bench of NIRC; however, due to the full bench not being available, the Islamabad High Court was approached.<\/p>\n
He said that a hearing was held in the Honourable Islamabad High Court on September 8, 2026, in which all parties completed their arguments. On behalf of the Democratic Workers Union, while referring to the Supreme Court judgment 2020SCMR 638, it was argued that third-party workers cannot be deprived of the right to vote.<\/p>\n
According to him, the court had fixed the matter for orders on September 10, 2026, but the decision has not yet been issued. On the other hand, NIRC has already conducted the referendum, due to which several legal questions have arisen. He said that after the court\u2019s decision, the future course of action will be decided in light of it.<\/p>\n
Liaquat Ali Sahi paid great tribute to all the workers who participated in the referendum and said that those contract workers who voted against the manifesto of the Democratic Workers Union have, in fact, decided to withdraw from the demand for their basic rights and have left themselves at the mercy of the administration.<\/p>\n
He said that through such an attitude, the trade union may become further weakened and decline, for which those elements will be responsible who stood with the administration\u2019s policies instead of the basic rights of workers.<\/p>\n
He said, \u201cThank God, I and my team are still standing today for the achievement of the constitutional, legal and basic rights of workers, and our struggle will continue.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Karachi (Digital Post) Democratic Workers Union, State Bank Banking Services Corporation Secretary General Liaquat Ali Sahi, while expressing his views to the workers on the results of Referendum 2026, has said that the recent referendum was not merely a competition between two unions, but basically it was a referendum of the workers against those policies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":65494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=65514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65516,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65514\/revisions\/65516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=65514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=65514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailydigitalposts.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=65514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}