Confrontation: Clerks choke Club Chowk, stage sit-in

Say their salaries should be increased by 5 per cent.

LAHORE: Hundreds of clerks from across the province gathered at Club Chowk on Thursday and protested against the government for not acceding to their charter of demands.

All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) had announced the protest after negotiations with the government had broken down earlier.

APCA had said it would protest in front of the Chief Minister’s House on Club Road. Police deployed in the area did not let the protesters go beyond Club Chowk on the Mall.

The protesters started gathering around 10am and blocked the road for traffic. They were carrying banners and pamphlets. They shouted slogans against the government and criticised its “anti-worker policies”. Some protesters were wearing wreaths made of vegetables, fruit or bread.

APCA leadersChaudharyMumtaz, Malik ZakirHussain, Faryad Ali Shah, TahirBhatti, Zafar Ali Khan, TahirRaza Shah, SafdarHussain and MukhtarGujjar led the protest. Activities at all public offices across the province were disrupted due to the pen-down strike.

APCA Punjab Chairman Haji Irshad told The Express Tribune that the protest would continue till their demands were accepted and the Finance Department issued an official notification in this regard.

“Our salaries should be raised by five per cent to match salaries of clerical staff in other provinces,” he said. “Scales should be upgraded following the pattern adopted by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government. The Punjab government should regularise services of contractual employees in all government departments. The government should provide us annual increments as it promised in 2007.”

He said the government should revise salary structures and upgrade posts of employees of BPS-1 to BPS-15.

Senior police officials met with the APCA leadership and asked them to clear the road but the protesters refused to leave until a notification was issued.

In the afternoon, nearly 1,000 APCA protesters gathered at Club Chowk on The Mall. As a result, traffic was clogged at The Mall, Davis Road and Canal Road.

Jamil Mian, a protester,said “We are not demanding anything outrageous,” he said. “The government promised us salary raises and service structure last year after  the budget was announced. All other provinces have upgraded their clerical staff according to the announcement.”

Later, a delegation was sent by the chief secretary to negotiate with the protesters.

These negotiations broke down and APCA leaders were called to negotiate with the additional administration secretary.

APCA senior member Chaudhary Mubarik Gujjer said negotiations over the contents of the summary were being held.

He said more protesters were on their way to Lahore from various districts. He said the protest would grow if the government failed to accept their demands.

The protesters had brought out mattresses and bed sheets with the plan to spend the night at Club Chowk by the time this report was filed.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 27^th, 2015.