Give us jobs, not pennies; demand visually impaired protesters

Protesters claim authorities were not serious in resolving their issues

LAHORE: Shouting slogans in favour of their demands, dozens of visually impaired persons blocked Metro Bus Service near Kalma Chowk on the second day consecutive of their protest against the apathy of the government.

A group of protesters from different districts of Punjab once again had gathered outside Lahore Press Club (LPC) and staged a sit-in on Saturday. After a few years of intermittent protests when authorities did not respond to their demands, the visually impaired persons headed towards Kalma Chowk bus station of Metro, their favourite spot for the last few years.

They staged a sit-in which disrupted the flow of metro bus service. This caused a massive nuisance to thousands of commuters who use Metro Bus service for travelling.



The protesters shouted slogans in favour of their demands. Usman Farooqi, a participant of the protest, said there were only three demands that included job to all the visually impaired persons across the province, regularisation of those who were working on daily wages and raise in their salaries.

They had protested and staged a sit-in the whole day on Saturday but no notable from the government came to see them. The next day on Sunday, Model Town Superintendent of Police Faisal Shahzad came to them and tried to convince them to end their protest but to no avail.

The protesters said the authorities had sent the message to go to deputy commissioner office where the representatives from Social Welfare Department and others were waiting to hold negotiations with them and end this sit-in. The protesters sent their two representatives for negotiations but have refused to end the sit-in unless their demands were met.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 14^th, 2018.