Judicial Strike: Staff at lower courts demand salary rise

SUKKUR:

The employees of lower courts  boycotted work and organised a protest on Saturday over what they said was the Sindh government’s refusal to increase their salaries.

The protesters included readers, office superintendents, clerks, peons, watchmen and guards. They were led by the All Sindh Subordinate Staff Welfare Organisation’s Aijaz Ahmed Memon and Abrar Hussain Soomro. They gathered at Minara Road near Dolphin Chowk.

Soomro said that the Sindh High Court had ordered the Sindh government to increase the salaries of the judicial staff by 300 per cent on May 24, 2011. A high court peon was being paid Rs33,000 per month, but a peon who had worked for 20 years at the lower courts was getting only Rs15,000.  Similarly, a junior clerk at the high court was getting Rs40,000 per month while a senior clerk of the lower courts was getting Rs25,000 per month. Soomro criticised the statement made by Sindh Law Minister Ayaz Soomro, who had said that the salaries will not be increased irrespective of their strikes and protests. The matter will be put before the Supreme Court, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 15^th, 2012.