LAHORE, May 24: Commuters opting for train journey from Lahore to Karachi had to face a great deal of inconvenience owing to a four-hour strike by the loco-shed technical staff of the Pakistan Railways on Thursday.

At around 7am, the staff shut down the main gates of the shed and refused to release locomotives for Tezgam, Karachi, Karakorum, Allama Iqbal and Business expresses to press the government for acceptance of their demands.

The demands include revision of pay scales making them commensurate with inflation, upgrading pay scales, payment of technical allowance and overtime, besides revival of travel and dearness allowances.

Later, senior officers of railways’ Lahore division reached the spot and persuaded the protesters to release locomotives after about two hours.

Rail traffic to and from Lahore could be normalised after another hour or so, resulting in delayed departure of Tezgam, Karachi and Allama Iqbal expresses.

A spokesman for the Railways Loco Shed Technical Staff Association said the workers had been railways backbone but they were constantly being ignored.

“We will go for a wheel jam from May 28 if our just demands are not met by then,” he said.