Govt, employees talks on pension reforms fail

Employees announce protest till the acceptance of all their demands by the provincial government

PESHAWAR:

Talks between the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government and employees of various departments on pension reforms have failed, leading to the announcement of another sit-in.

Government employees have announced a sit-in outside the Assembly again at 11 am today and warned of prolonged protests.

Government employees from across the province had protested outside the Assembly on Wednesday morning in which representatives from all departments had participated.

They had completely blocked Khyber Road, due to which the general public had faced many difficulties as traffic had remained suspended for hours.

On the other hand, the leader of the employees, Wazirzada, while talking to The Express Tribune, had said that the provincial government was under pressure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) due to which it did not want to take any step.

He said that the employees would never accept deductions from their salaries in the name of pension reforms. He added that their protest would continue until their demands were accepted and that government employees had been protesting for a long time against deductions from their salaries for pension.

In May last year, employees from various government departments had staged a protest rally outside the Assembly, demanding better salaries and benefits.

The protest saw a significant turnout, including numerous women from the Departments of Education, Health, Paramedical Staff, Peshawar Development Authority, Water and Sanitation Service Peshawar, Capital Metropolitan and other departments.

Protesters carried placards and banners outlining their demands and chanted slogans against the provincial government.

The demonstration severely disrupted traffic as protesters blocked the main Khyber Road, resulting in long queues of vehicles on both sides of the road that stretched for miles.

During the protest, leaders of various organizations addressed the crowd, demanding a 100% salary increase for government employees in the provincial budget to match the skyrocketing inflation. They rejected the provincial government's announcement of a 15% salary increase, calling it insufficient.

The protesters demanded that the provincial government increase the budget allocation for government employees and integrate ad hoc relief into the basic salaries.