Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani has constituted a four-member ministerial committee to resolve the dispute between PTCL management and employees. Talking to Business Recorder, PPP leader Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed, who is also the head of labour wing of the party said that he had a meeting with the Prime Minister in which he apprised him about the issue.
Prime Minister, he said, constituted a ministerial committee comprising Labour Minister Syed Khursheed Shah, IT minister Qamar Uz Zaman Kaira, Finance minister Syed Naveed Qamar and Water and Power minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.
The committee will be submitting its findings to the prime minister within two days after investigation the matter thoroughly, he said, adding that the committee members will be meeting PTCL workers shortly. "I will be standing with the PTCL workers in their struggle," he said.
To a question whether the PTCL employees would call off their strike after the constitution of the committee, he said he had not yet spoken to the PTCL workers and their union. We want all their demands to be accepted by the management, he added.
Meanwhile, the employees of the PTCL continued their protest on Wednesday against the Unified Pay Scale (UPS) amid reports of a complete deadlock between the workers and management. The security around the PTCL Headquarters was enhanced and heavy contingents of rangers and police were deployed to avoid any untoward incident.
The PTCL Employees Action Committee has reaffirmed the pledge to continue its strike till the acceptance of demands. There were reports that the PTCL employees blocked the PTCL Inquiry service of 1217, which caused problems to millions of people around the country. They have threatened to cease the entire PTCL network, if the employees were not taken back to the cadres.