HYDERABAD, Aug 30: The All-Pakistan Clerks Association has rejected merger of the building department with the highways department, their conversion into the building and roads department and shifting of its head office to Sukkur.

Speaking at a press conference at the press club here on Tuesday, the Sindh general secretary of the association, Ashraf Khan Bozai, Yameen Qureshi, Mushtaq Baloch, Roshan Zamir Sikandari and Amjad Mughal threatened to launch a movement from September 1 in protest against the shifting of the head office to Sukkur.

They said workers would observe a black day on September 1 and a pen-down strike as well as hunger strikes and protest demonstrations which would continue up to September 7.

They said the shifting of the head office to Sukkur was a tyrannical decision as no less than 350 poor employees of grade-1 to 16 working in Hyderabad would be displaced.

They said the employees had constructed their own small houses and some of them were still living in government quarters and finding it hard to make both ends meet.

They said the academic year had already commenced and children had taken admission to local schools.

They said since the creation of Pakistan, buildings and roads departments which also included public health department had been functioning but as it was found inefficient it was abolished in 1967 to improve its working.

They claimed there was no cogent reason that the department should again be resurrected.

They said according to their own knowledge engineers of the building department were worried about lack of funds and therefore every engineer was trying to get himself transferred to the highways department where funds were available in abundance.

They said only for the sake of engineers, the poor employees were being victimized.

They said if the government wanted to oblige engineers then it should implement its own rules under which an officer had to be transferred after every three years.

They said in 1979-80 secretary communication had issued a notification that after every three years, engineers of the building department would be posted in the highways department and vice versa.