PESHAWAR: The employees of National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) on Saturday called off their token hunger strike after giving another week’s deadline to the government to grant them service structure.

The Nadra employees had set up a hunger strike camp outside the Peshawar Press Club six days ago, displaying banners and placards inscribed with their demand that also included proper time scale, raise in salaries, other allowances and timely promotion.

On Saturday, the employees called off their protest temporarily and warned that if the federal government failed to accept their demands they would start train march across the country and besiege the Nadra headquarters in Islamabad on March 9.

Talking to mediapersons, the All Pakistan Nadra Employees Union central president Saleem Sherpao said that calling off the hunger strike didn’t mean that they had got tired but it was part of the strategy they had adopted for acceptance of their demands.

He said that all the senior and junior employees of Nadra had unanimously adopted a resolution demanding service structure, and had presented the same to the concerned officials. The workers, he said were ready to offer all kinds of sacrifices in support of their demands, and in case the campaign was prolonged then the entire responsibility would rest with the federal government. Mr Sherpao said that the workers had decided to get their demands accepted at all costs because the management had always dodged them on different pretexts since the inception of the department.

He said that the workers had decided to observe pen-down strike and shut offices from the first week of April in case the government didn’t pay heed towards their demands.

The other office bearers, including provincial president Azmat Qazafi, Abbas Khan Chamkani, Gauhar Ayub, Arshad Hussain, Sultan Yousuf, Tila Mohammad and Anwar Zeb also spoke on the occasion. They demanded of the government to avoid using delaying tactics and accept the charter of demands.

The Nadra employees said that the protest had reached a decisive phase and that they would not succumb to any pressure as they were ‘fully united’ and ‘ready’ to face whatever problems during the protest drive.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2015

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