April 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

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RAWALPINDI, April 17: The Punjab Lecturers and Teachers Association has demanded a 100 per cent increase in salaries of government employees in the next budget and insisted that the proposed raise should also be applicable to contract employees.

The demand was made by the president and secretary general of the Association’s Rawalpindi Division, Muhammad Ilyas Qureshi and Secretary General Rauf Ahmad Shah, respectively, in a joint statement issued here.

They pointed out that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz had frequently stated that there was no shortage of funds in the national treasury.

They said government employees formed the state machinery without which its affairs could not be run smoothly and stressed that those at the helm should try to make this machinery more efficient to achieve desired results.

Mr Qureshi and Mr Shah said the sky-rocketing price hike had made lives of the people miserable and the existing salaries had made it difficult for government employees to make both ends meet.

In a similar statement, the Central President of the Punjab Teachers Association, Raja Zafeer Ahmad Satti, said the economic and social conditions of the teachers of Punjab was worse compared to other provinces. He regretted that the Punjab government had not demonstrated a serious enough attitude towards these deprivations.