PESHAWAR: Members of the All Government Employees Grand Alliance belonging to Chitral and Dir districts here on Sunday staged a protest demonstration against the abolition of cold weather allowance, and demanded of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to restore it.

They said that the decision was sheer injustice with the people serving in different departments in hard areas of the province.

The protesters said that the government employees in Chitral, which was one of the hardest areas, had been getting cold weather allowance since 1940.

The firewood allowance, they said was Rs4.5 per day in the 70s, which was increased by the former Awami National Party government in 2009 to Rs45 per day.

They said that the incumbent Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government had assured the employees of enhancing the allowance to Rs100 per day, but it did not fulfill its commitment.

They said that instead of increasing the firewood allowance the provincial government had abolished it. They demanded of the Peshawar High Court chief justice to take suo motu notice against the decision.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2022