PESHAWAR: The employees of the Pakistan Railways on Monday asked the government to upgrade the basic pay scale of Control Office staff announced by the then government in 2007. Talking to The News, Pakistan Railways Employees Union CBA Peshawar Division President Abu Saeed Jafri said the government through an order had announced one-step pay scale upgrading of the Railways employees in 2007. He said the basic pay scale of all the categories had been revised under the order but the staff of the Control Office was ignored. The employees’ representative said that 135 chief controllers, controllers and deputy controllers were not upgraded despite lapse of 10 years. He said that they approached the Federal Service Tribunal in 2009 and in 2015 and it decided the matter in their favour twice and directed the ministry to revise the basic pay scale of the control staff but the directives fall on a deaf ear. Abu Saeed Jafri said that the employees also filed writ petitions in the Peshawar, Lahore and Islamabad High courts to get their right. He said that the cases were being heard. He said that the Pakistan Railways high-ups had time and again assured to upgrade the basic pay scale of the remaining employees but to no avail. Anjum Pervez, personal secretary to Minister for Railways Khwaja Saad Rafique, expressed ignorance about the matter. He said the basic pay scales of nearly 100,000 employees of the Pakistan Railways had been revised in 2007. He said the federal government was committed to working for the welfare of the employees and betterment of the Railways. This scribe contacted the Pakistan Railways Chairman Parveen Agha and sent several text messages on her cellphone number as well but she neither picked up the phone calls nor responded to the text messages.
