A massive protest sit-in by government employees of the Punjab Civil Secretariat and 38 provincial departments demanding salary hike equivalent to the rest of the country caused an immense traffic blockade throughout the city on Tuesday.
People were stuck on the roads in extreme heat and hunger as the distance of a few minutes took hours to cover. Citizens faced difficulties in going to offices, homes and business centres.
The Punjab government and district administration could not negotiate with the protesting employees or end the sit-in.
Work stopped in all government offices across Punjab and people visiting them had to return empty handed.
The situation on the main roads of the provincial capital could not normalise till the evening.
Wednesday will be the third day of the sit-in, with no indication of the contentious issues being resolved.
The Mall Road, Lower Mall, Chauburji, Ferozepur Road, Lake Road, AG Office, Jail Road, Data Sahib, Bhatti Chowk, Lohari, Islampura, Sant Nagar, Bilalganj, Urdu Bazaar Road, Old Anarkali, Jain temple and other areas faced the worst traffic congestion.
People were forced to walk to their destinations in extreme heat as drivers of public and private transport, rickshaws and motorcycle rickshaws refused to ply on the routes in the affected areas.
Sources said an All Government Employees Alliance had been formed to force the Punjab government to accept their demands.
Leaders of the protesters said the federal government had increased the salaries of its employees by 35 per cent in the annual budget. The provincial governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh followed the federal government and raised the salaries by 30 to 35%.
But the Punjab government increased the salaries of civil servants on the basis of the previous basic salary.
All Pakistan Clerks Association Lahore division president Chaudhry Mukhtar Ahmed Gujjar said the Punjab government should have increased the salaries of government employees and other facilities on the pattern of the federal government. The deviation had resulted in economic hardship for millions of employees.
He said there had been inflation of over 100%, but the salary of the provincial government employees had been increased by merely five to seven per cent.
Similarly, instead of 17%, the pensions were increased by 5%.
In another move, the facility of leave prior to retirement (LPR) of Punjab’s civil servants has been abolished.
“The caretaker government’s job is to hold elections, not to make policies,” Gujjar said, lamenting that instead of reducing its expenses, the government was exploiting the employees.
He said 38 organisations of government departments had jointly decided to go on strike.
He also complained that employees had not received money from Group Insurance and Benevolent Fund.
The leader said the employees feared that the government planned to do away with pension, gratuity and annual increments in the future. Many posts are vacant in the departments but people are not being provided employment.
Another leader of the protesting employees, Asif Khan, said the salaries should be increased on the pattern of the federal government on the basis of current basic pay. Muhammad Yousuf said the Punjab government had taken decisions tantamount to economic murder of its employees, against which the protest had been launched.
A protester, Muhammad Anwar, alleged that the government had cheated the civil servants in the name of raise. He said more policies were also being made against the government employees.
“We will continue the sit-in until our demands are met,” he added.
Tariq Basheer said the life of employees had become miserable and the country ongoing era of inflation.
He said the employees of all government institutions had come together for their rights and were protest outside the secretariat.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 12th, 2023.
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