BADIN, April 30: Some 248 workers have been dismissed from the Fauji Sugar Mills Khoki — a Fauji Foundation project located in the Badin district — during the past month while 19 of the 30 officers have also been retrenched during the same period, it was learnt on Wednesday.

The mill is a project of the Fauji Foundation.

Despite repeated attempts to contact the mill’s general manager, Brig (Retd) Mohammad Aslam Khan, was not available for comments.

A sit-in was staged on Wednesday in front of the mill’s gate to condemn the sackings.

On the occasion, the general secretary of the mill’s workers’ union, Nazeer Gujar, condemned the dismissal of the permanent employees and announced to launch a protest campaign in this regard.

Terming the dismissal of the factory workers the economic murder of 253 families, he said that the dismissals were unjustifiable as the mill was a profitable project.

Workers rejected the management’s plea that the mill had accrued huge losses, saying that mismanagement on part of the mill’s sugar division had led to the losses sustained by the mill.

They said that it had sold sugar and molasses at lower rates than the prevailing market prices and thus causing huge losses to the mill.

It was learnt that the mill’s management had retained only five of the 253 workers, which it had employed previously.

Officer-grade employees, whose services were “not required” by the mill’s management included deputy general manager, agriculture manager, chief engineer, deputy chief chemist, and shift engineers of the mill’s mechanical and chemical departments.