Municipality staff in Sukkur demand salaries

Hundreds of Sukkur Metropolitan Corporation employees, pensioners organise sit-in at Minara Road.

SUKKUR:

Hundreds of Sukkur Metropolitan Corporation employees and pensioners organised a sit-in on Thursday at Minara Road to protest against the fact that they have not been paid their salaries for the last nine months.

They are also fuming at the fact that though they haven’t received their due, more than 200 people have been hired by the municipal authorities with back-dated appointment letters, even though the body is cash-strapped and overstaffed. The enraged employees and pensioners, led by the president of the corporation’s union, Gul Bahar, and its general secretary, Muhammad Asif, boycotted work and took to the streets. They  demanded the government pay salaries within 48 hours, or they will go on strike indefinitely.

Gul Bahar said that each month, the authorities and elected representatives make empty promises to the workers, saying that salaries and pensions will be paid. “It has become impossible for them to meet household expenses.”

Sukkur’s additional commissioner Suhail Anwar Baloch said that the workers should be patient as they will be paid their dues.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 22^nd, 2013.