Daily Times

PESHAWAR: Chairman of the United Municipal Workers Union, Muhammad Naveed Malik, on Monday threatened to launch a strong agitation starting from June 1 in favour of the upgradation demand.

Declaring how to proceed with the protest, the chairman vowed that the union would stop the supply of water to the city. He also said that sanitation and street lights would be shut down and “then we will lock all our offices in the district.”

The protest will be carried out by the union in response to a notification issued by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) finance department for the upgradation of pay scales of the provincial government employees. The notification available with this scribe says that “ the upgradation scheme shall not be applicable to employees of autonomous, semi autonomous bodies and public sector companies.”

Muhammad Naveed Malik said that more than 6,000 thousands workers of the union across the province would join the June 1 protest in the provincial capital. “However, the government has ample time to enter into talks with us and resolve the issue effectively; otherwise, the time is elapsing for the government”.

The general secretary of the union Shafiuddin, said recently, the representatives of the union held a meeting with Syed Qasim Ali (Deputy Mayor district Peshawar) and Zahid Nadeem (Nazim Town-1) about their upgradation issue and both had pledged support in their favor. He criticised the KP government for upgrading the pay scales of provincial employees but not extending the policy to municipal employees.

The press secretary of the union Salahuddin said that the notification indicated the discrimination policy of the provincial government towards the local government employees, who would come to the roads fromJune 1 and force the KP government to amend the relevant notification in their favour.