RAWALPINDI: Sanitary workers of the Rawalpindi Waste Management Company (RWMC) and the Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation on Thursday staged a protest against the non-payment of the Eidul Azha honorarium announced by the Punjab government and demanded the regularisation of contract employees.
More than 300 employees, led by Raja Haroon, President of the Municipal Labour Union, marched from Murree Road to the Rawalpindi Press Club, where they staged a demonstration.
The protesters carried banners bearing their demands and chanted slogans against the administration. They demanded payment of the honorarium announced by Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz.
The protesters said the chief minister had announced an honorarium of Rs10,000 for each sanitary worker on the occasion of Eidul Azha. They said sanitation workers had worked round the clock for the three days of Eid to ensure cleanliness across the city, but hundreds of employees had yet to receive the promised payment.
More than 300 employees march from Murree Road to the Rawalpindi Press Club, stage demonstration
They said many employees continued to work on daily wages or on contract despite rising inflation. They added that workers had neither received the announced honorarium nor been regularised, leaving many under severe financial stress.
The protesters said it had become increasingly difficult to make ends meet because of rising prices and increasing house rents, with little relief available for low-income families.
Raja Haroon, president of the Municipal Labour Union representing RWMC and the Municipal Corporation, and the union’s secretary, Shahid Raza, said a protest sit-in held in May this year for the regularisation of workers had been postponed after the administration assured them that the matter would be resolved. They said powers to regularise contract employees had subsequently been delegated to the corporation’s chief officer under the 2021 policy.
However, they said that despite repeated reminders from the union, no practical steps had been taken, leaving employees with no option but to resume protests and boycott official work. They warned that if contract employees were not regularised immediately, they would launch an indefinite protest.
Meanwhile, Rawalpindi Commissioner Salman Ghani on Thursday directed the authorities to make the sanitation system across Rawalpindi Division more effective, better coordinated and aligned with modern standards to ensure the provision of quality municipal services.
He issued the directives while reviewing sanitation arrangements and waste management under the Clean Punjab programme.
He said providing the public with a clean, healthy and pollution-free environment was among the Punjab government’s top priorities. He directed all sanitation-related agencies to work in close coordination, keep machinery fully operational, strengthen the waste collection system and ensure uniform standards of cleanliness in both urban and rural areas.
The commissioner emphasised that all relevant departments should work under a unified strategy to achieve the objectives of the Suthra Punjab Programme and transform Rawalpindi Division into a clean, green and model division.
During the meeting, officials gave a comprehensive briefing on the operations of the RWMC and the Suthra Punjab Agency, covering waste collection, sanitation arrangements, machinery and the challenges facing the sector.
The meeting was informed that the Suthra Punjab Agency was currently providing sanitation services in all 24 tehsils of Rawalpindi Division. Officials said the RWMC was directly managing sanitation operations in three districts, while services in four districts had been outsourced.
The meeting was further informed that the RWMC was managing the disposal of municipal waste collected from Rawalpindi city, Capital Development Authority (CDA) areas and 20 housing societies.
Participants also discussed jurisdictional issues between the CDA and cantonment areas, the need for stronger inter-agency coordination, and the responsibility for desilting blocked drains, which rests with the Water and Sanitation Agency.
The meeting also reviewed the proposed transfer of about 1,700 kanals of land at Mandrah, Chakwal, for the establishment of a waste disposal site, as well as progress on the development of transfer stations.
Published in Dawn, July 31st, 2026