LAHORE, May 14: Scores of teachers and employees of other government departments on Saturday staged a demonstration on The Mall and held a 'protest walk' from Masjid-i-Shuhada to Punjab Assembly for the acceptance of their charter of demand.

The teachers and government employees protested under the banner of All Pakistan Employees Federation and Punjab Teachers Union.

The protesters chanted slogans against the government and demanded that they should be given a pay raise to meet the ever-increasing price hike. They said that they were not even able to buy daily-use items.

Owing to sweltering heat, PTU three leaders, including Najamul Hasan Najmi fainted and were later admitted to Ganga Ram Hospital.

Speaking to protesters, teachers and employees leaders Haji Abdul Ghaffar, Allah Bakhsh Qaiser, Abdul Rasheed Bhatti, Allah Rakha Gujjar and others said the government must take a sympathetic view of the deteriorating financial condition of teachers and revise their pay scales in line with inflation. They demanded that the Dr Mahboobul Haq formula should be implemented for the calculation of their salaries.

The teachers demanded that the Punjab government refrain from assigning various outdoor duties to teachers that included census, anti-polio vaccination campaign and relief activities in flood-hit areas.