Government employees call off strike

Rawalpindi: Finally, government employees have called off their strike and opened all departments and educational institutions here in the province including Rawalpindi on Saturday.

The government employees have called off the strike on the assurance of PML-N leader Maryam Nawaz Sharif. She has assured government employees to accept all their genuine demands. On the directions of Maryam Nawaz, police have released all arrested employees from all cities. The Punjab government will quash all FIRs and no action will be taken against government employees.

Punjab Government Employees Association senior representatives named Nazar Hussain, Chaudhry Khalid Javed, Ziaullah Khan Niazi, Mehar Muhammad Yaseen, Gull Nawaz Swati, Chaudhry Muhammad Mukhtar, and several others met PML-N’s Malik Ahmed Khan who assured to accept all genuine demands. The protesters were on strike against changes to the pension and leave encashment rules and demanded their salaries according to federal government employees. The teachers were on strike against the privatisation of public schools. All government schools and government departments were locked for over 10 days here in the Punjab province including Rawalpindi Division.

Thousands of parents have protested against the closure of all public schools and demanded the Punjab government to restart educational activities here in Rawalpindi. All public schools under the Punjab government were locked for over 10 days but bosses saw the whole drama with closed eyes. The citizens particularly parents have strongly appreciated the positive role of Maryam Nawaz she interfered to resolve this issue.

The senior representatives of government employees told ‘The News’ that if the Punjab government turned back its promise we would again come on the roads. The senior representatives of teachers also warned that if the Punjab government does not take back the decision to privatize government schools, we will once again close down all public schools for an indefinite period.

The public faced hell-like situations during protest days because they failed to do their routine work. The school-going children were wandering here and there without education for over 10 days.