August 09, 2008	Saturday	Sha’aban 6, 1429

HYDERABAD, Aug 8: A large number of sacked employees of the Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), under the banner of the Sindh and Balochistan Sacked Employees Action Committee, staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Friday to protest against inordinate delay in their reinstatement despite the orders of the prime minister.

Speaking on the occasion, chairman of the action committee, Zulfiqar Qadri, and others said that the then prime minister Benazir Bhutto had appointed 5,000 educated youths of Sindh and Balochistan in SSGC in accordance with rules and regulations. They said that when her government was dismissed, these employees were also sacked.

They said that the employees fought a legal battle for their reinstatement for 12 years in the services tribunal and high and supreme court. They said that so far 1,200 employees have been reinstated under the orders of the supreme court while 1,040 employees have also got verdict in their favour in the federal services tribunal.

They said after the induction of coalition government and on the recommendations of a large number of PPP MNAs, letters were issued from the prime minister’s secretariat on April 23 and 28, directing the SSGC managing director to reinstate the workers.

They, however, regretted that the sacked employees have not been reinstated by the MD of the company on the ground that no covering notification has been received so far. They said the bureaucracy was trying to create hurdles in their reinstatement.

They warned that if they were not reinstated, they would observe hunger strike unto death outside parliament house on August 11 and if the notification was further delayed, five sacked employees will commit self-immolation outside the prime minister’s house in Islamabad on August 20.

They appealed to PPP co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani to intervene in the matter.

JSNP: A large number of activists of the Jeay Sindh National Party staged a demonstration outside the press club here on Friday to protest against price hike and unemployment.

Speaking on the occasion, JSNP chairman Agha Shamshad Mughal criticised the PPP government and said that it had disappointed the people and failed to check price hike, unemployment and law and order situation. He said the situation had reached at such a stage that the poor people were even prepared to sell their children.

He said that Sindhi speaking people living in Karachi were being harassed and intimidated by a particular group and their villages were being demolished under a planned conspiracy.

He called on the government to regularise katchi abadis in Hyderabad and adopt effective measures to control price hike and eliminate unemployment.