Pakistan govt employees protest, demand 25 pc hike in salaries

Pakistan government employees on Friday demanded 25 per cent hike in their salaries and protested against the 10 per cent hike provision proposed in the national budget for FY2021-22.

The protesters said that for the past three years, they had not seen any raise in their salaries.

They also demanded that contractual employees be regularised immediately, reported Geo News.

The employees protested outside National Assembly as a session started with Minister for Finance Shaukat Tarin unveiling the national budget for FY2021-22.

They blocked off Shahrah-e-Dastoor (Constitution Avenue) where all other important buildings are located and staged a sit in at the main gate of National Assembly.

The road leading up to the National Assembly was blocked off with barbed wire, but it proved unsuccessful to deter the protesters, who jumped over it.

Later in the evening, the protest came to an end, with the protesters asking the government to review its decision of a "mere 10 per cent increase".

"Salaries should be raised by 25 per cent, otherwise at the end of June, we will announce our next course of action," they said.

Later, after the session had ended, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari joined the government employees' protest to express solidarity with them, reported Geo News.

Bilawal, speaking with the government employees, said that Imran Khan-led Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party "lies to the people of Pakistan" and does not fulfil promises and agreements made with the government employees.

The PPP chairman thanked the media for reporting on the protest and said that the media should become the voice of the poor. He hoped that the media will "expose the injustices" to the government employees as well as the poor people of Pakistan over the last three years of the PTI government.

"The government claims that the economy is taking off and we are on the path to economic progress. Why then are the salaries of the government employees not increased?" he asked.

"Inflation in Pakistan has increase many folds, the poverty and unemployment has reached an unprecedented level during the last three years. The government should have increased salaries to a maximum level amid the worldwide pandemic," he argued.

(ANI)

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