April 25, 2008	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 18, 1429

RAWALPINDI, April 24: Employees of the Pakistan Post here on Thursday held a demonstration against low wages for overtime outside the post office located near the railway station.

About forty employees from the Mail Sorting Transportation department staged the protest, demanding raise in the wages for overtime, that are Rs18 for eight hours per day for class VI- employees and Rs36 for class-III employees. The protesters were also carrying placards highlighting their demands.

Later, in a press release the All Pakistan Post Employees and Workers Union stated that the employees had to perform duty for extra eight hours as books of the Allama Iqbal Open University are mailed throughout the country by the department through Rawalpindi Railway Station.

They also said that the employees were not being provided with proper medical care and the only dispensary of the department was not of any use to them.

Postal Colony near Golra is in miserable condition as its boundary wall has fallen, garbage is scattered here and there, and the people have made passages through the colony that has resulted in rise of thefts and robberies, they said.

The colony is also denied water supply, despite deduction of Rs50 from the salaries of the residents, the union leaders said.

They alleged that Rs7 million were allocated for a tubewell in the colony but the amount was utilised for a tubewell in the office of a higher official.