Clerks’ body announces strike across Punjab on Tuesday

Demand increment in pay, pension and job security

RAWALPINDI:

All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) will observe strikes in all government offices across Punjab on January 26.

The clerks in government offices of Rawalpindi will lock down all offices and observe a pen-down strike on the day.

APCA Rawalpindi Division President Chaudhry Mubashir Ahmed and other officials told The Express Tribune that there would be a pen-down strike and lockdown in all offices in favour of their demands for better pay and pensions. They added that there would be a protest on Murree Road as well. APCA officials demanded the government to issue a notification regarding increment in salaries by January 31.

Or else, the clerks would march towards Islamabad on February 10 and stage a sit-in outside Parliament house.

Read More: Pakistan Post starts abolishing accounts, pension system in phases

Earlier this week, the finance ministry has once again ruled out the possibility of immediately increasing salaries and perks of civil servants despite a threat of an indefinite strike by over five-dozen government organisations and labour unions from the next week.

The interior ministry has feared that the Pakistan Democratic Movement - an alliance of 11 opposition parties, may hijack the employees' protest, showed an official correspondence.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, January 25^th, 2021.