PESHAWAR: The officers of the government’s 34 directorates and attached departments demonstrated outside the provincial assembly building on Tuesday to press the government for ending pay disparity among different cadres of civil servants.

They criticised the provincial government for turning a blind eye to their demands.

The protest comes as Speaker of the provincial assembly Mushtaq Ghani supports the call for pay parity and urged the chief minister to consider the officers’ demand.

The officers have been boycotting duties since July 13when the police broke up their protest rally by using tear gas and water cannon and detained several of them for hours.

Writes to CM on matter as protest held in Peshawar

The Attached Departments Officers Association organised the Tuesday rally in which officers from the provincial capital and other districts participated in large numbers.

AODA president Amin Khan renewed demand of 125 per cent increase in the officers’ basic pay.

He challenged provincial finance minister Taimur Saleem Jhagra to hold an open debate on pay disparity.

ADOA chief coordinator Sufian Haqqani also demanded pay raise and said the association had already rejected the 20 per cent meagre increase in salary announced by the provincial government.

He said the government should immediately end disparity in the salaries of various cadres of its employees.

“We’re confused about the failure of finance minister Taimur Jhagra to notice pay disparity,” he said.

Mr Haqqani said members of the provincial cabinet and opposition had also declared the association’s demand to be just.

ADOA deputy general secretary Attaullah Khan said the officers had been observing a strike for many weeks to claim rights.

He said all employees hired for BPS-17 posts got job under the Civil Servants Act, 1973, and usually the salaries of all employees stayed the same. Mr Attaullah accused the finance minister of increasing pay disparity.

An ANP delegation led by Malik Tariq Awan joined the protest to support officers.

Also, Speaker of the provincial assembly Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani has written a letter to Chief Minister Mahmood Khan endorsing the employee’s demands and calling for an end to pay disparity.

Mr Ghani said he was endorsing the reasonable demand of employees to end the discrimination and disparity in pay and allowances.

He asked the chief minister to review the ADOA’s demand on compassionate grounds.

Meanwhile, a protest by the KP Association of Government Engineers for the implementation of the Pakistan Engineering Council Act, 1976, entered ninth day on Tuesday.

In a statement, the association said the PEC Act declared that anyone without an engineering degree couldn’t be appointed to a post reserved for engineers, but it was violated.

It alleged that the way was being paved through an amendment to the rules to appoint non-engineers to the posts of executive engineers in the irrigation department.

The association said it would continue its protest until its demands were met.

Published in Dawn, September 1st, 2021