Azad Kashmir: Work on mega road project suspended

Construction on the largest road project in AJK was halted as the technical staff launched a protest.

MUZAFFARABAD: The construction on the largest road project in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was halted as the technical staff launched a protest.

Some 55 members of the Earthquake Emergency Assistance Programme (EEAP), which is working on the 76-kilometre-long Muzaffarabad-Athmuqam Road, have gone on an indefinite strike demanding an increase in salary. Donor Asian Development Bank, which has provided Rs2.5 billion to the project, has agreed to increase the staff’s salaries but a forum of the Earthquake Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Authority’s (ERRA) has not approved it yet. However, salaries of some other workers have been raised. The EEAP staff had moved the AJK High Court, which ordered the formulation of a uniform pay package.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 24^th, 2011.