Unpaid salaries: Disgruntled PTDC employees to protests outside parliament

Lower staff not paid for last two years.

ISLAMABAD:

More than 400 disgruntled employees of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) who have not been paid salaries for the last two years have threatened to stage protest rallies outside parliament and across Pakistan from Monday. 

Over 450 employees of PTDC including PTDC motels, Pakistan Tours Limited and PTDC Tourist Information Centres have been working without salaries for the last two years.

PTDC Employees’ Union President Majid Yaqoob Awan while talking to The Express Tribune said that it was increasingly becoming difficult, especially for lower grades employees to make both ends meet without salaries. “Their very survival of the employees is at stake, but the government and the PTDC management are turning a deaf ear to the issue,” said Awan.



He alleged that illegal appointments were made in different departments during the tenure of former PTDC managing director Mir Shahjahan Khetran, which led it to decadence and bankruptcy.

A PTDC official requesting anonymity said that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has recently given a go-ahead to start investigation against Khetran and other former and current PTDC officials who were allegedly involved in financial mismanagement, illegal recruitment and illegal leasing of PTDC properties.

Awan said that on one hand, the PTDC management has failed to pay salaries of its employees, while on the other, it has opened three new offices in the twin cities, including one in Flashman’s Hotel in Rawalpindi, one in F-6 Markaz, and one in the Pakistan Sports Complex.

He said that Minister for Interprovincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzada ignored the requests of the affected employees when he was approached to help resolve the issue.

PTDC Managing Director Furqan Bahadur said the management was still facing a funds shortage. He said that a total of Rs39 million was released by the government to run PTDC, but the amount is not sufficient to pay past salaries.

He said that the PTDC management has requested that the government approve a special grant of Rs500 million to clear outstanding dues and salaries of it employees.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 8^th, 2013.