PESHAWAR, Sept 25: Officers of the NWFP information department continued their pen-down strike for the third consecutive day here on Tuesday.

The protesting officers held separate meetings at the directorate of information and the office of the information secretary here. They pledged to continue their protest till their demands were accepted.

NWFP Chief Minister Akram Khan Durrani had announced one-step promotion of officers who had remained in grade 17 for 10 years. The directives were implemented in provincial departments, except for the information department.

Speaking at the meetings, the officers claimed that the director of the information department who was in grade 18 felt threatened by the promotion of his colleagues.

They accused him of manoeuvring with the authorities concerned to delay their promotion till he was promoted to grade 19.

They also criticised a clerk of the department for his alleged role in delaying the cases of their promotion and allotment of plots to them. They said the clerk, who had contacts in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, turned against them when his demand for including his name in the list of people to get plots in Durrani Media Colony was rejected.

Provincial Minister for Information Asif Iqbal Daudzai had announced plots for the officers in the colony, but they did not get the allotments.—PPI