ISLAMABAD: The provincial governments’ employees who were staging a protest under the umbrella of All Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA) called off their sit-in and dispersed following a “successful” round of negotiations with the government.
The federal government employees who were staging a sit-in outside the parliament along with the provincial government employees also ended their sit-in outside the Parliament House; they however, announced that they would continue their routine protest till their demands were met.
The representative of the government committee assured protesters that the government has not planned to abolish pension benefit and curtailment of the retirement age.
National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Khan Suri and Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan assured that demands of the government employees would be presented in the next cabinet meeting.
Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan termed such news circulating on social media as misleading, and categorically said there was no truth in such reports. Suri, while addressing the protesters, said that the government had not taken any decision to curtail retirement age of the government employees and to abolish their pension benefits.
Ali Muhammad told the protesters that he had informed the prime minister about the demands of the government employees.
The demands of the protesters will be presented in the next cabinet meeting, he said, adding that the government will make utmost efforts to resolve the issue related to restoration of adhoc relief of the government employees. Earlier, hundreds of government employees under the umbrella of AGEGA had staged a sit-in outside the Parliament House, and urged the government to increase their salaries as per the prevailing inflation in the country.
The government employees from various parts of the country including teachers as well as employees of other departments gathered outside the National Press Club and then marched towards D-Chowk for staging a sit-in outside the Parliament House. The protesting government employees were holding banners and placards inscribed with slogans in support of their demands. Heavy contingent of police was deployed on all roads leading to the Red Zone.
Protesters also clashed with the police, when they were stopped from moving towards the Parliament House.
Police used water cannon to block entry of protesters into the Red Zone but they failed to block entry of protesters, and charged protesting employees entered into the Red Zone.
The government employees demanded revision of pay scales as per recommendations of the pay and pension committee, merger of all ad hoc reliefs into the basic pay, and pay raise commensurate to the prevailing price hike. They also sought increase in the house rent and medical allowance, and issuance of health cards to all the public-sector employees. Employees of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa said that other provinces had increased salaries and allowances, but in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government did not increase it.
Opposition leaders including Khawaja Asif of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Fasial Karim Kundi of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), Abdul Gafoor Haideri of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), Senator Usman Kakar of the Pashtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PMAP), Mian Iftikhar Hussain of the Awami National Party (ANP), and some other leaders, joined the protest to express their solidarity with the protesting government employees.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020