LAHORE: The Federal Revenue Alliance Employees Union (FBR Union) has appealed to the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take notice of the ‘highhandedness’ of the Punjab police for first baton-charging and then registering cases against the workers who were holding a peaceful protest at the regional tax office (RTO) in Lahore.

“Punjab Inspector General Mushtaq Sukhera, just to please his batchmate Chief Commissioner Waqar Ahmed, dispatched a strong contingent of 350 to 400 policemen to the RTO to control some three dozen or so workers primarily protesting against poor security arrangements at their offices,” Union Central President Mian Abdul Qayyum said at a news conference here on Saturday.

The workers were also protesting against manhandling of a bailiff, Arif Baig, who later was paralysed and admitted to a local hospital. They were also raising voice for a lower divisional clerk, Muhammad Ajmal, who died for not getting timely dialysis treatment because his medical bills had not been cleared for the last four months by the chief commissioner, said Mr Qayyum.

“The workers were raising voice for their rights but the policemen started baton-charging them without any provocation and then took all of them to the police station and registered cases against them,” said the union president who was flanked by other office-bearers.

Mr Qayyum said the union and management had several rounds of talks and a final meeting was scheduled for Monday (Dec 29). “We were optimistic that all our demands will be accepted but 15 more employees were suspended from service on Saturday,” he said.

The union would shut down all the tax offices in the country on Dec 29 if its ‘genuine’ demands, including withdrawal of suspension orders and cases, were not addressed by then, said Mr Qayyum.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2014