PESHAWAR: The engineers employed by various departments of the province went on a pen-down strike again on Monday to protest the government’s dillydallying in notifying technical allowance approved by the cabinet earlier this year.

The engineers working in eight departments had begun a strike in April to press the government for accepting their demands.

The strike ended after the Pervez Khattak-led government announced that they had accepted the engineers’ demands, especially technical allowance like PMS/PAS officers, the posts’ upgradation, and permission for private practice.

On Monday, the engineers began the pen-down strike again saying this will protest until the finance department notified technical allowance at the rate of 1.5 times of the basic pay for them as decided by the provincial cabinet twice this year first in May and then in June.

The establishment department wrote to the finance department on June 11 asking it to implement the cabinet’s decision by issuing the technical allowance notification.

The letter read that the demands of the KP Association of the Government Engineers had been approved by the provincial cabinet in its meeting on May 21, wherein it had approved technical allowance at the rate of 1.5 times of the initial basic pay to all engineers working in the provincial government departments with effect from July 1, 2018.

“In order to implement the decision of the provincial cabinet, I am directed to request to issue the notification of technical allowance for government engineers,” it added.

Engineer Shakir Habib, convener of the KPAGE, told Dawn that the government had accepted all association demands except one involving B-Tech degree holders, which was sub judice.

He said regarding the upgradation and restructuring of government departments, the cabinet had ordered the relevant departments to ‘do the groundwork’ on the matter before placing it before it for decision.

The KPAGE convener said currently, the committees were busy doing their work on restructuring of engineering cadre in all departments and would place their proposals before the cabinet.

He however said the protest was meant to press the government to issue notification of the technical allowance and that it would continue until the finance department notified the allowance.

Mr Habib said on June 5 and 11, the establishment department asked the finance department to implement the cabinet’s decision but to no avail.

He said the finance department was delaying the issuance of notification for one reason or the other.

“We have also held several meeting with the relevant officials but the issue is still unresolved. The department has again referred the matter to the cabinet citing high financial cost of allowance to the government kitty,” he said.

The KPAGE convener said the strength of engineers working in irrigation, communication and works, public health, local government, Tevta, mines, planning and development and other departments totaled around 700.

Mr Habib said the cabinet had approved technical allowance and a similar allowance for the police officers in the same meeting and finance department notified police allowance, but not ready to do so in their case.

When contacted, finance secretary Shakeel Qadir Khan said the issue was not pending with his department and that it had already been referred to the cabinet for decision.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2018