HYDERABAD, June 20: Workers and leaders of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Lions Staff Union staged token hunger strike outside press club on Wednesday, to condemn the alleged destruction of PTCL in the name of restructuring.

Hunger strikers led by the union leader Haji Khan Bhatti raised slogans in support of their demands and against the PTCL management. They said the new management had become vindictive towards its employees by retrenching them in the name of voluntarily separation scheme (VSS).

They told journalists that their facilities had been stopped while 15 per cent raise announced in 2006 and 2007 was yet not included in salaries due to non-implementation of decision. They asked to stop forthwith restructuring plan as it was pushing the PTCL towards destruction.

They criticised the management's initiative of putting employees in surplus pool and asked to end it immediately.

Workers demanded promotion, house building and motorcycle advance.

They asked reinstatement of the Telecommunication Foundation’s employees and improvement in medical policy. They announced to stage hunger strike in Sukkur on June 22.

Those who observed hunger strike included Jaffar Shah, Shoaib, Pir Bux, Shakir Abbasi, S.M.Yousuf, Qazi Shakeel, Ibrahim, Usman, Naseer, Shakeel and Chaudhry Iqbal.