KOHAT: The employees of the tehsil municipal administration on Monday observed a strike against the transfer of tehsil municipal officer Mohammad Shoeb.

Speaking to the protesters, TMA employees union president Sakhi Badshah and secretary general Mohammad Vaqas said under the government rules transfer of any official without any valid reasons before completion of his three-year tenure was unjustified.

They regretted that the official had been transferred just four months after his posting to Kohat.

They warned to continue strike if the transfer of the TMO was not cancelled. They said the official had made the TMA financially strong and ensured cleanliness across Kohat, especially during Eid days. They said his transfer would not be tolerated in anyway.

The employees’ union leaders said the TMO’s transfer had been made on political grounds because he had been taking decisions according to the law which hurt the interests of some influential people.

Meanwhile, a jirga held in Bangash area assailed the TMO’s transfer.

The jirga held at the residence of former Peshawar High Court chief justice Syed Ibne Ali criticised the transfer before Muharram.

The speakers said the official replacing him would take time to develop relations with the people in the most sensitive Kohat district during Muharram.

The leaders from Bangash belt said the TMO’s transfer was a big administrative failure of the government. Meanwhile, president of sanitation workers body Haji Sohail and president of government’s fruit and vegetable market, Haji Yousuf also rejected the transfer.

They said the TMO was being punished for closing an illegally-run private fruit market owned by a senior PTI leader.

Published in Dawn, August 18th, 2020