PESHAWAR: The Provincial Management Service (PMS) Officers Association on Monday announced a pen-down strike from Tuesday (today) against alleged discrimination by the federal bureaucracy posted to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Earlier, the officers had been on a token strike from 10am to 12pm since Friday demanding of the government to take measures to safeguard their rights.

An office-bearer of the association told Dawn on condition of anonymity that no one from the senior administration and provincial government contacted them to discuss their demands during the token strike despite the issue had been raised by the opposition parties at the provincial assembly floor.

“About 600 PMS officers would observe the pen-down strike from Tuesday,” he said.

The PMS association’s member said the protesting officials would gather on the premises of the secretariat, while their colleagues posted elsewhere across the province and Fata would also protest in their respective areas. “The pen-down would continue till government fulfills all of our demands,” he said.

Also on Monday, opposition leaders expressed their sympathies with the protesting officers and took up the issue at the KP assembly session.

Opposition Leader Maulana Lutfur Rehman, QWP parliamentary leader Sikandar Sherpao and ANP parliamentary leader Sardar Hussain Babak asked the government to take action on PMS officers’ demands as their strike would bring the government machinery to a standstill.

KP Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser asked the protesting officers to postpone their demonstration for 15 days, and promised to convene a meeting of the law reforms committee within two weeks to take up the matter.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2015

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