PESHAWAR: The technical and non-technical employees of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have urged the provincial government to announce their upgradation immediately, otherwise they will observe a sit-in outside the KP Assembly building on December 4.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club here on Wednesday, representatives of the workers, including Mohammad Gul Khalil and Mohammad Naveed, said that the successive governments had always neglected the demand of the poor employees regarding their upgradation.

They said that the people had attached great expectations to the incumbent government, but it also seemed least interested in meeting their demand. They demanded of Chief Minister Pervez Khattak to order their promotion without delay.

They also demanded increase in their salaries and incentives keeping in view the soaring prices of daily use items.

“Provision of justice to the poor tops manifestos of all political parties, but the claims are not materialised when these parties assume power,” regretted the low ranked employees.

The workers’ leaders said that the poor people were selling their kidneys and committing suicides, but the government was silent over the grave issue.

The protesting employees said that government claim of purging the departments of corruption had not materialised as the menace continued unabated.

TIMERGARA: The Qari teachers of state-run schools on Thursday demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to upgrade their posts like other cadres of teachers in the province.

The demand was made at a meeting of Tanzeem-ul-Qura on Wednesday. The participants said that they had been performing their duties at government high and higher secondary schools for long, but they were treated as primary schoolteachers.

They demanded basic pay scale of 15, and warned of launching class boycott if their demand was not met.

Meanwhile, the clerks and class-IV employees of various departments on Wednesday observed strike against the official of a non-government organisation, the Merlin, for mishandling a clerk at the district health office.

The clerks kept their offices locked and held a protest meeting at Balambat, which was chaired by All Pakistan Clerks Association’s district president Mohammad Shaier Tajak. The participants alleged that an officer of the NGO, Dr Imran, manhandled and insulted clerk, Nowsherawan, and threatened him of dire consequences without any provocation.

They said that the boycott would also continue on Thursday if the NGO didn’t offer a written apology to the clerk.

Published in Dawn, November 27th, 2014