SAHIWAL: On behalf of the caretaker chief minister, the Punjab School Education Department has established a six-member committee to address the concerns of protesting government employees from various public sector departments.

These employees, under the banner of the All Government Employee Grand Alliance (Agega), had previously launched a protest across the province and a sit-in in front of the Civil Secretariat in Lahore.

They are demanding withdrawal of changes to the leave encashment, gratuity and pension rules introduced by Caretaker Chief Minister Mohsin Naqvi.

Agega contends that the caretaker government lacks the legal and constitutional authority to amend the Govt Servants Rules of 1973 and demands that the changes to the rules be revoked.

The six-member committee is comprised of Mansoor Qadir, the caretaker minister for the School and Higher Education Department, serving as the chairman, along with provincial secretaries from the finance, regulation S&GA, school education, higher education and primary and secondary healthcare departments.

According to a source close to the situation, the committee’s terms of reference include holding talks with Agega leaders, assessing the demands and grievances of government employees participating in the protest, including the financial implications of proposed solutions in alignment with regulatory frameworks and laws. The notification is signed by the section officer (SE-II) and is dated Oct 30.

The Agega protest camp in front of the Civil Secretariat in Lahore was forcibly disbanded by police and law-enforcement agencies, leading to the arrest of the Agega leadership and more than 300 protesters from Lahore and other cities in Punjab.

The Agega leadership was sent to Kot Lakhpat Jail, prompting the alliance to call for a protest that resulted in the closure of schools and colleges across Punjab for two weeks.

Agega organised major protests in nine divisional headquarters of Punjab, namely Lahore, Sahiwal, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan, Faisalabad, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan and Bahawalpur.

On Oct 20, just one day before Nawaz Sharif’s return to Pakistan, Agega’s leadership was released from the Kot Lakhpat Jail after negotiations with Maryam Nawaz.

Following this, Agega called off the protests and schools and colleges were reopened while clerical staff resumed their activities.

On Oct 29, the Agega leadership met PML-N leader Muhammad Ahmed Khan, who assured the delegates that a notification would be issued.

It is expected that the committee will submit its final report within 21 days. The notification has received mixed reactions, with a senior leader in Agega calling it a ‘lollipop’ for government employees.

Dr Tariq Kaleem, a senior leader of Agega, posted on social media that the notification brings ‘hopeful’ prospects for more than one million public sector employees in Punjab.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2023