Railway workers protest non-payment of salaries

RAWALPINDI:

Pakistan Railway's (PR) Locomotive Shed workers staged a major protest at the Rawalpindi Railway Station against the non-payment of their salaries on Monday. They raised slogans and burnt the effigies of the PR Minister, Finance Minister and Chief Executive Officer during the demonstration, expressing their indignation.

According to the protesters, the PR Minister had promised to pay them their salaries within 48 hours 10 days ago, but no employee had been paid as of yet. The workers had been on strike for the past week.

Yesterday, the Action Committee made an appeal to the Ministry, saying that salaries had not been disbursed well into February. For many employees, this meant that they were forced to go to mosques and Zakat Sehri Khanas break their fasts. The Committee demanded that if the railways are earning a lot of money, then why are the small employees not being paid their salaries?

"Today, the employees of the Pakistan Railway are crying tears of blood. They have been deprived of salaries and benefits. The government, chief minister and the PR will be doomed because of the curses they are incurring from the workers' families," said one of the protesters.

The employees raised slogans and burnt effigies throughout the hour-long demonstration. The Action Committee encouraged all railway unions to unite and hold a nationwide protest for the timely payment of salaries.

The leaders of the railway workers' union, Qadir Khan Mandokhel, Junaid Awan, Ghulam Nabi Brohi, Central Information Secretary Mubarak Hussain, Riyadh Kashmir and Qaiser Zaman expressed sympathy with the loco staff and announced their full support for the protest.