LG workers reject 10pc raise in salaries

PESHAWAR: Terming the budget anti-poor, the All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation on Wednesday announced to launch a protest campaign for their rights.

Through a statement issued here, the All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation president Malik Muhammad Naveed Awan said the government wanted to shift the burden of corruption and mismanagement in the country to the poor workers. He rejected the 10 percent raise in the budget, saying that the government raised the pay by 10 percent while levied five percent tax on salaries. “The workers are being forced to commit suicide,” he said, adding that the rulers should decrease spending on their luxuries instead of taxing poor. He said the government was making false claims of lowering the expenditure of the PM’s House, President’s House and provincial chief executives but in reality, the expenditures had increased manifold. Malik Muhammad Naveed Awan lamented that the middle class, which was already paying heavy taxes, had been subjected to more taxes.