PESHAWAR: The police arrested 19 protesting employees of the Worker Welfare Board (WWB) after baton-charging and tear-gassing them outside the provincial assembly’s building here on Tuesday.

Around 300 contractual staff members of the WWB, including women, had turned up in the provincial capital from across the province to demand regularisation of their services in light of the ‘Supreme Court orders’.

They first demonstrated outside the Peshawar Press Club’s premises and then marched through the Sher Shah Suri Road to reach the Suray Pul Chowk outside the provincial assembly, where they blocked part of the Khyber Road.

The artery remained closed for more than two hours after which the police personnel baton-charged protesters and fired tear gas at them to disperse them leaving several injured.

All WWB Contract Employees Association president Younas Marwat told Dawn that 17 of the protesters were injured in the police’s crackdown and were taken to the Lady Reading Hospital.

He also claimed the arrest of 28 protesters though the police put the number at 19.

Mr Marwat said that the Supreme Court, in the decision on a review petition, had ordered the government in March to regularise the services of the contractual WWB employees, who were hired in line with the rules, but the authorities didn’t follow those orders.

He said that the protesters, who dispersed after the police’s action, would stage another protest today (Wednesday) to demand their service regularisation.

In a statement, commissioner of Peshawar division Riaz Khan Mehsud said the district administration had banned protests on the Khyber Road under Section 144 since April 19.

He said that a meeting, which took place at the commissioner’s office on April 16 and was attended by members of trader organisations and political parties, had unanimously agreed about a ban on the Khyber Road protests and decided that all demonstrations would be staged in the nearby Jinnah Park.

Mr Mehsud said that the WWB employees on Tuesday violated that ban and relevant laws by blocking the Khyber Road for several hours and thus, causing road closures and the ‘worst gridlock’ in the city to the misery of the people.

He said that the district administration had contacted organisers after they announced the rally’s plan but despite negotiations, the WWB employees blocked the major road.

“Despite repeated requests of the administration, the protesters refused to reopen the road to traffic and even attacked the police. The administration was forced to baton-charge them to restore smooth flow of traffic on both sides of the road,” he said.

The commissioner said that action would be taken against the arrested protesters under Section 188 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Published in Dawn, May 11th, 2022