Faisalabad: June 21, 2011. (By Shazia George) Association of Women for Awareness and Motivation (AWAM) and Workers Party Pakistan (WPP) staged a protest rally against inflation and budget 2011-2012 to show gesture of unacceptability among public about anti-public budget presented by the government, and criticized the government on less budgetary allocation for education and health, and huge allocation for defense. The rally was joined by people from different spheres of life including representatives of trade unions, student unions, political parties and civil society organizations. The protesters marched from District Council to Circular Road in Faisalabad on 17th June 2011. They chanted slogans against defense budget, increased foreign loans, corruption, inflation, worst law and order, poor rule of law, less wages, load-shedding of gas and electricity, feudalism, capitalism, privatization of state owned enterprises, government’s anti-poor economic policies and anti-labour laws. The charged protestors were carrying placards and banners inscribed with their demands to give relief to working class that: Defense budget must be presented in the national assembly; Allocation of budget for education and health must be increased, and allocation of budget for military should be reduced; The inflation must be controlled and stern action should be taken against industrialists and hoarders responsible for price hike; The rate of minimum monthly wages should be fixed in accordance with the rate of inflation; Subsidies on utilities, food commodities and petroleum products must be provided to give relief to the masses; The government must seek ways of converting unproductive spending into productive investment, and should reduce the gap between national revenues and expenditures by revenue collection even from influential persons and institutes; The government must take steps to move Pakistan from a "national security state" to a ‘public welfare state’ in which over 60% of the national budget could be spent on human and social development rather than weapons.