Police tear-gassed and baton-charged hundreds of unpaid employees of the district municipal corporations (DMCs) of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, who were protesting outside the press club on Tuesday.
The police also used water cannon to disperse the angry employees, who wanted to march on the Governor’s House and the Chief Minister’s House located in the security red zone to mark their protest against the non-payment of June’s salaries.
The Municipal Workers Trade Union Alliance (MWTUA) along with leading unions of the different DMCs had given the protest call.
According to workers’ representatives, the police aso arrested 28 workers, who were reportedly locked up at the Artillery Maidan police station.
MWTUA chairman Syed Zulfikar Shah and other noted workers’ representatives, including Masoom Shah, Jabbar Baloch and Qasim Shah were in police detention till the filing of this report.
According to representatives, due to the continuous stubborn attitude of the provincial finance department, the grant for local bodies’ institutes could not be released which has deepened the prevailing financial crisis.
These representatives believe around 35, 000 local bodies’ employees of Karachi and more than 3, 000 pensioners could not be paid their June’s remuneration.
Eid-ul-Fitr, they said, was expected to fall soon and as per practicing law, the salaries of August were also due before the Eid but unfortunately they had still not received June’s salaries.