HYDERABAD, Nov 11: The PTCL workers held a protest gathering at Old Central telegraph office (CTO) compound here on Tuesday following the death of one of their colleagues.

Khalid Ahmed died in Karachi after receiving serious burn injuries in an accident while on duty.

His colleagues said that Khalid Ahmed received 70 per cent burn injuries on Hali Road after an excavator hit a gas pipeline in the area. He was there to ensure safety of a telephone cable, passing through the very same spot where the excavator was working in connection with the laying of a sewerage line.

He was taken to PNS Shifa in Karachi where he breathed his last the other day. PTCL employees said that the company’s complicated procedure for health facilities makes matter worse with the result that they don’t get health services when required.

The workers announced three days of mourning in the PTCL’s STR region.

Central Deputy Chief Organiser and Regional General Secretary Shakeel Ahmed Khan said that employees were being given charity in the name of medical facilities, although PTCL was earning huge profits and added that employees were working for the company therefore they should be provided quality health facilities. He demanded restoration of another hospital on the panel of the PTCL and employees provided the ambulance service. He also called for compensation of one-million rupees for deceased employees.

The PTCL Union’s Ghaffar Sheikh and Shafi Mallah also spoke on the occasion.

Several resolutions were adopted demanding payment of compensation to deceased, doing away with mandatory condition from Dr Sadia Waqas, provision of medicines in PNS Shifa and NICVD for PTCL workers, withdrawal of orders regarding performance of security duties by employees, availability of concerned department’s officials during development work in the city, separation of Internet and cable wires that pose threat to workers.