February 17, 2007	Saturday	Muharram 28, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 16: Activists of the Trade Union Rights Campaign Pakistan (TURCP) here on Friday held a demonstration to express solidarity with over 20,000 public-sector employees in Azad Kashmir who are on protest since February 6, demanding the government to fulfil it promises.

Soon after the October 2005 earthquake, President Gen Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz promised to government employees in the calamity-hit AJK that loans borrowed by them from banks would be written off.

“The government is yet to honour its words,” said Trade Union Rights Campaign Pakistan Secretary-General Azad Qadri while addressing the protesters who gathered in front of the camp office of the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Press Club.

Mr Qadri said on one hand employees were still waiting for relief, while on the other banks had stopped paying pension to thousands of retired employees.

He said the government had written off loans running into billions of rupees availed by industrialists across the country, but was unwilling to provide any relief to the earthquake- affected people.

“It is an irony that labourers and employees have no right to form unions in the AJK as there are no labour courts that can provide justice to the victims of ruthless capitalism,” Mr Qadri said.

The demonstrators demanded that the government should extend the coverage of labour courts to AJK as well, where employers were exploiting workers in the absence of any legislation.

He said even the media had ignored thousands of employees and members of the Mulazimeen Action Committee, Poonch, who had been protesting peacefully against the AJK government.

He said the labourers would hold demonstrations against the AJK government across the country if their grievances were not redressed soon.