RAWALPINDI, May 20: Members of All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) observed a pen-down strike here on Thursday in a bid to press the government to accept their charter of demand and redress their issues in the forthcoming fiscal budget.

The APCA also threatened to hold public meeting in its central secretariat on May 27, in case the government failed to give a positive response to their demands. On the call of APCA central president Fazal Mabood Khan, more than 2.2 million members observed pen-down strikes in various cities including Peshawar, Mardan, Charsadda, Chitral, Karachi, Hyderabad, Khairpur, Thatta, Gujranwala, Jhelum, Sargodha, Quetta, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Poonch and Kotli.

The APCA office-bearers demanded of the government to increase their salaries according to the ratio of inflation. In Rawalpindi, thousands of clerks from 28 different departments held protest demonstrations and chanted anti-government slogans.