PESHAWAR: A group of Pakistan Steel Mills retired employees on Friday observed a symbolic hunger strike outside the Peshawar Press Club against the delay in payment of dues, and warned to hold demonstrations outside the provincial and national assemblies if the government did not resolve their issues at the earliest.
Talking to mediapersons, senior citizens, including Pervez Khan, Haji Abdul Rauf, Bashir Ahmed, Saeedullah Khan and others, narrated their ordeal and said they served in the steel mills for 40 years in different capacities, but were not paid the dues after retirement.
“The number of retired workers has reached 6,000 since 2013 but none of them has been given the dues,” they said.
The PSM former employees said the relevant officials had assured them to resolve the issue at the earliest but they did not take serious steps for the purpose. Most of the retired employees, they said were sole bread-earners of their families.
They said due to financial constraints the retired workers were unable to have treatment for different ailments and to marry their sons and daughters off. The government, they said was not paying attention towards their problems.
Published in Dawn, February 1st, 2020
