Life in Peshawar was thrown into disarray on Monday after employees of the Capital Metropolitan Government launched an indefinite strike over non-payment of salaries and pensions. With the walkout, all municipal services, including sanitation, waste disposal and other civic operations, ground to a halt.
Offices under the metropolitan administration were locked up as workers vowed not to return until their financial dues are cleared.
The strike call was announced following a meeting of the United Municipal Workers Union, chaired by its chairman Malik Muhammad Naveed Awan and attended by key office bearers, including General Secretary Syed Waqar Ali Shah, President Ismail Khan, Finance Secretary Khawaja Aftab Elahi, and several senior leaders. The union has also planned a protest rally in the city to press their demands.
Speaking at the meeting, Malik Naveed said the crisis had pushed thousands of low-paid employees and their families to the brink. "Our households are facing starvation, while aged retirees, widows, and orphans run from office to office in vain, unable to access their pensions," he said. He criticized senior officials for continuing to indulge in extravagant expenses while employees are deprived of their most basic rights.
Union leaders further alleged that around Rs7 million per month was being spent on daily wage workers who, they claimed, were neither required nor regularly seen on duty. "This unnecessary expenditure is draining the limited resources of the metropolitan government while genuine employees are left unpaid," the union representatives said.
They warned that the strike would remain in force indefinitely until the government ensures the release of salaries and pensions, stressing that workers were left with no option but to resort to such drastic action.
The protest in Peshawar follows months of growing resentment across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa's local bodies over inadequate financial support from the provincial government. In June, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Local Government Employees Federation had voiced strong concern over the failure to release sufficient grants to pay salaries and pensions of employees in financially weak councils.
According to the federation, the Finance Department had approved grants of Rs360 million and Rs150 million for settled areas and Rs71 million for merged districts. However, union leaders argued these amounts fell far short of the actual requirements of various Tehsil Municipal Administrations (TMAs). They said the allocations were often based on outdated formulas, leaving weaker councils unable to pay staff on time.
Federation leaders, including Patron-in-Chief Shaukat Kayani, Chairman Mehboobullah, President Haji Anwar Kamal Khan Marwat, and General Secretary Sulaiman Khan Hoti, accused provincial authorities of ignoring ground realities. They lamented that many employees and pensioners could not receive their dues even ahead of Eidul Fitr and were now again facing hardships in the run-up to Eidul Azha.
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