LARKANA: Employees of the National Fund for Moenjodaro (NFM) posted at the heritage site on Wednesday boycotted their duties and staged a demonstration in protest against non-payment of their two months salaries.

They locked the gate of the Moenjodaro Museum and held a sit-in outside raising slogans for disbursement of their salaries.

One of the protesters, Mehboob Ali Siyal, told the media that they had repeatedly been making requests to the culture department for salaries but the officials concerned had turned a deaf ear towards their cries. He said some of the 25 affected employees had been working at Moenjodaro for 20 years but their services were not being regularised.

The employees posted at the site included conservation assistant, supervisors, site attendants and tourist guides.

According to sources, curator Irshad Rid and conservator Ali Haider Gadhi visited the protesters and conveyed to them a message from culture additional secretary Bashir Brohi assuring them that their issue would be resolved as soon as possible.

The protesters said they were ‘suspending’ their protest on the assurance.

Published in Dawn, October 2nd, 2014