PESHAWAR/Kohat: The Peshawar Electric Supply Company employees on Monday boycotted duties and observed a sit-in outside the Wapda House here against the delay in their promotions.

The protesters were holding banners and placards inscribed with their demands for upgradation, and against the government’s plan for privatising the Wapda. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, MPAs Yaseen Khalil and Dr Haider Ali also visited the workers’ camp and expressed solidarity with them.

Speaking on the occasion, All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union chairman Gohar Taj, provincial chairman Mohammad Iqbal, secretary Mustajab Mazdoor Yar, deputy chairman Ali Syed and Liaquat Ali said the government was using delaying tactics in upgrading the employees.

They alleged that the main hurdle in the upgradation process were the members of the Pesco’s board of directors who had kept them deprived of what they said their due rights. They said that it was only Pesco which had delayed provision of incentives to workers as all other power distribution companies across the country had already accepted the workers’ demands.

“All the power companies have paid bonuses and announced two-step upgradation of workers, while in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa the issue has been delayed due to interference by the Pesco’s board of directors,” Mr Taj alleged. The workers, he said would continue their protest sit-in across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa till April 15.

On the occasion, Speaker Asad Qaiser and other MPAs urged the federal government to accept demands of the Wapda workers to remove the unrest among them.

They also expressed concern over the unscheduled and prolonged loadshedding in the province and said that a joint meeting of all the parliamentary leaders would be held on April 16 on the one-point agenda against loadshedding to devise next line of action in this regard.

In Kohat division, Wapda hydro workers union on Monday started a pen down strike throughout the division till acceptance of their demands.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2015

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