Out on the streets: Anti-encroachment police hold protest

The policemen were hired on a contractual basis and their salaries were stopped after their contract period expired.

KARACHI:

The anti-encroachment police held a protest demonstration outside Karachi Press Club on Thursday for the immediate release of their three-month salaries.

The protesters also demanded the regularisation of their jobs in the police department. They shouted slogans against the provincial authorities for not releasing their salaries for the last three months. They demanded Chief Minister Qaim Ali Shah to immediately release their salaries and regularise them in the police department.

Presenting their demands, a female constable Soniya, said that they wanted the provincial authorities to pay their salaries, give the anti-encroachment martyrs the status of police and regularise them in the Sindh police department. She added that since no one was paying heed to their issues, they had been compelled to stage protest and put forward their demands.

She said that they had been performing their duties in the police stations of Karachi throughout the last six months, during which three of their men were killed and two other sustained injuries in the recent spate of policemen killings.

Anti-Encroachment SSP Arif Aziz, who successfully negotiated with the protesters, said they had agreed to postpone their protest till August 13 and he had conveyed their demands to Board of Revenue senior member Malik Israr Hussain.

Hussain has summoned the revenue secretary in Hyderabad to resolve the issue and hopefully the matter will be settled till next week, he said, adding that the protesting police personnel were hired on a contractual basis and their salaries were stopped after their contract period expired. He said that Hussain will request the chief minister to regularise these policemen and issue their salaries.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2014.