PESHAWAR, Feb 2: A year ago when he made a career-change move and switched over to a truck terminal from a motor mechanic workshop, Nasir Khan though that he made a major leap forward.
As a mobile crane operator he started making over Rs15,000 a month, a jump from the Rs5,500 monthly salary he previously got as a motor mechanic.
However, the gain appears to be a short-lived affair as Mr Khan is about to lose his job. He is one of the hundreds of mobile crane operators in Peshawar who are facing a potential threat of losing job.
“I informed my employer that I won’t continue on reduced salary from this month,” said Mr Khan.
Their employers (owners of truck terminals) have lost major quantum of their business owing to suspension of supplies to Nato forces in Afghanistan after its November 26 last air strikes on two Pakistani border checkposts at Salala, Mohmand Agency.
The affected employees told Dawn that they were in full support of government of Pakistan’s measures and would sacrifice whatever they could.
However, most of them feel neglected by the government in their time of need. The government, the said, should help them to find alternative means of earning.
Since there is no work, Mr Khan’s employer is paying him Rs5,000 basic salary per month. “I used to earn Rs10,000 to Rs15,000 per month over and above the fixed basic salary,” he said.
As a mobile crane operator, his job was to load and unload containers from trailers. Other than the fixed salary, he used to get Rs100 for loading and unloading per empty container and Rs200 per filled container.
He said that he could no more send money to his family back home in Takhta Bund, a far-off village in Buner district.
Mohammad Junaid, 25, belongs to Karak district. He was elevated to the rank of a crane operator recently after having worked as a helper at a truck terminal for four years. He, too, was clueless what would he do if his employer laid him off because of no business.
The Khyber-Afghan terminal on the Ring Road, where Mr Junaid works, used to receive and dispatch around 17,000 containers every month.
The terminal owner has a business contract with a global shipping company that was sending supplies to Nato in Afghanistan before the government suspended the operations.
“How can I afford getting married amidst impending joblessness?” said a dejected Junaid, sitting on a charpoy in the verandah of the terminal.
Another operator Ustad Wazir, a resident of Landi Akhund, like many others, is not sure about his future, finding it difficult to sustain only on the fixed salary.
“What will you do, if you were getting Rs20,000 a month and now you get Rs5,000 per month?” he asked.