October 04, 2007	Thursday	Ramazan 21, 1428

HYDERABAD, Oct 3: Wapda employees demonstrated outside local press club on Wednesday against the proposed bifurcation of corporation, upgradation of pay scales, and granting Eid allowance.

Earlier, they took out a rally from Labour Hall, Gari Khata, which terminated at the press club. Central President, Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (CBA), Abdul Latif Nizamani said, “Wapda employees will not allow bifurcation of Wapda and handing it to private companies.”

The rally adopted several resolutions while rejecting bifurcation of Wapda. It demanded the pay scale of all employees like the ministerial staff should be upgraded and they be paid one month additional salary as Eid allowance.

The other union leaders Iqbal Kaimkhani, Malik Sultan, Qazi Saleem Anwar, Iqbal Khan and others said the inordinate increase in the prices of essential commodities had hit working class.

They urged the government to control price hike and increase the wages of workers commensurate with the increase in the prices of essential consumer items. They demanded withdrawal of Presidential Ordinance 2000 and IRO 2002.

BOYCOTT: On the call of Federation of All Pakistan Universities Academic and Staff Association, the teachers of Sindh University observed token strike and boycotted classes from 10am to 12 noon to press for the acceptance of teachers’ demands.The demands include upgradation of non-PhD professors and associate professors to grade-21 and 20 respectively, withdrawal of Model University Ordinance from the Balochistan University, and removal of retired army officers, bureaucrats and professors from the posts of vice chancellors.

INAUGURATION: Vice Chancellor of Liaquat University of Medical and Health Sciences Jamshoro, Prof Naushad Ahmed Shaikh performed the inaugural ceremony of polymerise chain reaction section at the diagnostic and research laboratory at the Hyderabad campus for the diagnosis of hepatitis-C.

He said the diagnostic and research laboratory was already providing quality service on no-profit-no-loss basis with fully automatic analyser with latest technology to detect diseases in the field of haematology, chemical pathology, virology, histopathology, cytology and microbiology.

Prof Shaikh said now Cobar Amplicor Analyser with latest technology had also been installed to detect hepatitis-C virus. He said this facility hitherto was only available at the Aga Khan University.

He announced that all expenses other than reagent will be borne by the university. He said presently tests for hepatitis-C virus (qualitative), hepatitis-C virus (quantitative), hepatitis-B virus (qualitative) and HIV (qualitative) analysis will be conducted. A large number of professors and doctors attended the inaugural ceremony.