Drastic measures: Power dept employees cut off electricity in protest

Demand payment of salaries overdue since last four months.

GILGIT: Employees of Gilgit-Baltistan’s (G-B) power department cut off electricity supply to the city on Thursday in protest over non-payment of salaries.

At least 4,500 employees of the power department have not been paid for the past four months. “This is our collective decision to stop operations until our four months’ salaries are released,” said Mushtaq, one of the employees.

The strike began early morning when employees refused to let anyone turn on the machines. The senior management tried to persuade the staff to call off the strike immediately, but to no avail.

The employees have formed an action committee to ensure the success of the protest by making sure no one returns to their duties as long as the strike continues. They also said this is the first phase of the protest, adding they will soon chalk out details for the next phase.



G-B Minister for Water and Power Didar Ali held meetings with his staff to reach a compromise, but failed to appease the protesters. “We are holding negotiations to end the strike and hopefully we will soon be successful,” Didar Ali told The Express Tribune.

The strike comes at a time when G-B is already suffering from a flour crisis that has led to the closure of tandoors across the region. The power outage adversely affected businesses, residential areas and hospitals, bringing life to a standstill.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 11^th, 2013.