SUKKUR, Sept 8: Dozens of officials of Sukkur Central Jail-I demonstrated outside the press club here on Monday in protest against non-payment of their salaries for last 10 months.

They told journalists that they appeared in interview/test on December 26, 2006 for jobs in jail police and were given offer letters after one year and sent for training.

“We sold household items to meet expenses as no stipend was paid to us during training,” they said adding: “We were posted at Central Jail-1, Sukkur after completion of training.”

“Despite the lapse of 10 months salaries have not been disbursed because which our families were nearly starving”, they said.

Officials belonging to other districts including, Nawabshah, Shikarpur, Khairpur, Larkana and others are getting salaries on regular basis, but of Sukkur jail are still waiting,” they said. Despite an assurance by the IG Prison their salaries were not yet released.

They demanded of President Asif Ali Zardari, Sindh chief minister and IG prison to take notice and order immediate disbursement of their salaries.

A jail officer requesting anonymity told this scribe that despite many requests to accounts officer Sukkur Treasury regarding disbursement of salaries to new appointees nothing had so far been done.

He said that some jail officials belonging to Larkana filed a petition in the Sindh High Court Circuit Bench Larkana regarding disbursement of salaries and court ordered immediate disbursement of salaries.

He said that the decision of Sindh High Court was applicable throughout the province but the accounts officer was not releasing their salaries on the plea that these officials were appointed during the ban on recruitments in government departments.