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| September 15, 2005 | Thursday | Sha'aban 10, 1426 |
Employees oppose devolution
PESHAWAR, Sept 14: The workers and officers of Public Health Engineering department of NWFP, staged a demonstration here outside the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday in protest against the devolution of the department and called upon the authorities to revoke what they called the ‘unwise decision’.
Earlier, speaking at a press conference, president of the Engineers Association Shabir Ahmed Qureshi said the PHE had been established to provide drinking water to people, because the district councils had failed to meet the needs of the people.
He said the PHE had installed tube wells and developed other water resources and provided clean drinking water to at least 98 per cent population of the NWFP. “On the one hand President Gen Pervez Musharraf says his government will provide clean drinking water to 150 million people of the country by 2007, while on the other hand federal and provincial government are engaged in dismantling the department, responsible for providing the drinking water,” he added.
A large number of PHE employees, who marched from their offices in the Civil Secretariat, arrived outside the press club, chanted slogans against the PHE’s placement under the Thehsil Municipal Administration, which lacked in its expertise of providing drinking water.
Carrying banners and placards, the PHE employees demanded of the government to abandon its plan of dividing the department into pieces. They said the PHE employees had a service-structure, which protected their rights, while the TMAs would not offer such job protection to the workers.
They observed that such actions might become counter productive for the national interests.
Later, speaking to the protesters, Workers’ Welfare Association president Pir Gul Wali said they would not allow the government to put them at the mercy of TMAs.
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