HYDERABAD, June 8: Workers of the Water and Sanitation Agency (Wasa) have postponed their strike for a week over an assurance by local leadership of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Deputy Commissioner Agha Shahnawaz that they will make efforts to get their salaries released.
At a meeting at the deputy commissioner’s camp office on Thursday evening, leaders of the Joint Action Committee of protesting Wasa workers Bahram Chang, Khalid Noor and Aslam Abbasi they were left with no option but to go on strike to raise voice against this injustice.
Mr Chang said that Wasa workers’ families were starving because of non-payment of salary for five months.
The DC informed the meeting that a summary had been sent to the chief minister and the governor of Sindh, detailing problems of Wasa and its workers.
Sindh Minister for Information Technology Raza Haroon was also informed about the problems being faced by Wasa and he assured them that he would take up the matter with the chief minister, said the Deputy Commissioner.
He said that for Wasa to be able to clear dues of its workers it was necessary that its dues were recovered and a committee would be formed in this regard comprising revenue and Wasa officials.
Khalid Noor, a member of JAC and president of the Non-Gazetted HDA Employees Association, told Dawn that JAC members attended another meeting with MQM’s MNA Salahuddin at the party’s zonal office. The MNA told them that efforts were under way to resolve the issue, he said.
The JAC representatives were told that Wasa officials had given a presentation at the Governor’s House and the matter was being taken up with the authorities concerned, said Mr Noor.
The workers were told to call off their strike because it would take some time.
If their problem remained unresolved even after a week the MNA would himself join their strike, he said.
He said that JAC leaders were of the view that they would postpone the strike for a week to see the government’s response.
They would resume it if the issue remained unresolved even after a week, he said.
Meanwhile, Wasa Managing Director Saleemuddin and Finance Director Mohsin Jafri made a presentation to the additional secretary to the governor on the issues facing Wasa. It was learnt the governor would hold a meeting in this regard on June 13.
Wasa officials told the secretary that the main issues that concerned Wasa were; budgetary allocations for water charges, payment of electricity dues and sewerage charges.
CONCERN: The vice-chairman of the Sindh chapter of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Amarnath Motumal, has expressed concern over non-payment of salaries to Wasa employees.
In a statement, he termed non-payment of salaries a violation of human rights and demanded immediate release of salaries to workers.