March 25, 2007	Sunday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1428

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GILGIT, March 24: Over 470 temporary employees of the Northern Areas Public Works Department have not been paid salary for the past three months.

The workers said that they were facing acute financial crisis and demanded early payment of salaries. They said that due to non-payment of salary, they were unable to pay school fees of their children.

They said that they had been working in the department for the past 10 to 15 years and demanded of the government to regularise their services.

They opposed new recruitments and said that instead of hiring new people the current ad hoc employees should be adjusted on vacant posts.

They claimed that they had experience and expertise but were being denied permanent job.

The employees said that they would go on hunger strike if their demands were not fulfilled.

PLAN OPPOSED: Engineers and educated jobless graduates have opposed a government plan to absorb surplus engineers of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir in the Northern Areas public works and power departments.

Talking to Dawn, they said that there were many jobless engineers and graduates in the Northern Areas who could be inducted into the departments by fulfilling the requisite procedures for recruitment.

They contended that joblessness among the educated youth in the region was already high and the proposed plan to recruit AJK engineers would further deprive them of any chances of employment in future.

Earlier, the chief executive of the Northern Areas and federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Northern Areas, Tahir Iqbal, had said that they had decided to adjust the surplus engineers of the AJK education department in the Northern Areas Public Works Department and its sister organisation water and power department to overcome shortage of manpower.

Sources said that nearly 50 sub-engineers were inducted by the AJK education department to carry out construction work on community and non-formal schools in collaboration with the World Bank.