LAHORE: Speakers at a Seerat-un-Nabi conference in Lahore have argued that the teachings of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) offer a workable framework for addressing the difficulties faced by workers and employees, and have called for those principles to be reflected in state economic policy.
The event was organised by the Pakistan Milli Labour Federation (PMLF). According to organisers, speakers said the principles of the Seerat should be incorporated into public life and state policies to address rising inflation and the country’s economic difficulties.
The conference was addressed by Pakistan Markazi Muslim League (PMML) Deputy Secretary General Khalid Naik Gujjar, PMLF President Rana Shamshad, PMML Lahore General Secretary Hameed-ul-Hassan Gujjar, Railway Milli Clerical Association Patron-in-Chief Khalid Iqbal Gujjar, Railway Workers Union CBA leader Mian Khalid, and Railway Inqilabi Union leader Inayat Ali Gujjar, among others. A large number of government and semi-government employees and workers attended.
Speakers said ordinary workers and employees were facing growing hardship because of inflation, low incomes, unemployment and mounting economic pressure. They said the Seerat of the Holy Prophet (PBUH) offered a comprehensive social and economic framework in which workers’ rights, support for those in need and the welfare of vulnerable sections of society were given central importance.
They called for a system in which state power and resources were directed towards public welfare, protection of workers’ rights and support for disadvantaged groups.
The grievance aired at the conference has a measurable basis. The Pakistan Institute of Development Economics (PIDE) proposed a national minimum wage reference benchmark of Rs45,000 a month for 2026-27, a 12.5 per cent increase over the notified wage of Rs40,000, with indicative provincial calibrations of Rs45,000 for Punjab and Rs46,000 for Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.PIDE warned that Pakistan’s current wage-setting approach had become largely symbolic and discretionary, and was no longer aligned with persistent inflation, rising food and energy costs, and growing household vulnerability.
Its co-author, PIDE economics professor Dr S. M. Naeem Nawaz, said a credible wage floor must be one that workers can realistically receive and provinces can realistically enforce, noting that nearly 80 per cent of Pakistan’s employment remains informal.
That informality is the practical obstacle. A notified wage covers only the documented workforce; for the large majority employed outside it, the floor is advisory at best — which is why labour bodies increasingly frame the issue as one of enforcement rather than announcement.
The presence of three railway-sector union leaderships is notable. Pakistan Railways has been among the most persistent sites of public-sector labour organisation, and railway employees’ associations have historically been a bellwether for wider government-employee sentiment on pay revision, pension security and privatisation. Their participation signals that the federation is pitching to the organised public-sector base rather than to informal labour alone.
The federation’s Seerat conferences have become a recurring vehicle for placing economic demands within a religious framework — an approach that positions labour grievances outside conventional party-political contest.
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