THATTA, May 3: Government employees protested on Friday against the non-payment of the expenses incurred at 123 polling stations during the referendum.

Traffic on Sujawal, Golarchi and bypass link roads remained suspended for about six hours due to the protest. The protestors burnt old tyres and staged a sit-in on the main highway in coastal town of Jati.

Chanting slogans, the protesters surrounded the Mukhtiarkar office and alleged that Mukhtiar Qureshi, the taluka Mukhtiarkar of Jati, had usurped the money entrusted to him to be disbursed to each polling station for referendum expenses, including meal for the staff.

The leaders of the employees alliance, Ghulam Abbas Themore, Imdad Hussain Achrani and others spoke to the demonstrators and claimed that Mukhtiarkar Jati merely paid the expenses to ten polling stations and refused the pay to the remaining 113 polling stations staff.

Later, Nazim UC Jati, Mohammad Juman Malkani, got the crowd dispersed peacefully on assurance that the matter would be resolved within two days.

NGO WORKER BEATEN: A young NGO worker, Ghulam Mustafa Zaur, was beaten by a barber for preaching the importance of primary education at Amra village, some 38 kilometres off Thatta on Friday.