Metro Bus staff in Pindi to come on roads over non-payment of salaries

Rawalpindi: Hundreds of Metro Bus Service (MBS) employees Wednesday staged protest demonstration against non-payment of their salaries and announced to come on roads if their outstanding dues are not cleared soon.

Thousands of other staff working in cloth, mobile, crockery, shoes, cosmetics, barber, tyre, electronics, hardware and auto shops have also announced to come on roads against non-payment of their salaries in lockdown citing indifferent policies of the government which allowed some business to remain open while others faced action from law enforcement agencies.

On the other hand, Metro Bus Authority has refused to own the staff working with the bus service saying that they had hired all employees including drivers, conductors, security staff, ticketing staff, sweepers etc from different private companies.

Majority of employees working in Metro Bus Service (MBS) in different cadres have been deprived of their salaries for over two months while around 300 people who helped keep the service operational have also not been paid their salaries since January this year. These employees of the service have now decided to stage a protest to draw the attention of the authorities towards their plight.

Metro Bus Authority (Director) Madam Shumaila told ‘The News’ that drivers, conductors, ticketing staff, sweepers, security staff were not government employees but were hired by the Metro Bus Authority from different private companies. “We have paid all dues to private companies till March, so it is the duty of private companies to pay the salaries of drivers, conductors, sweepers, ticketing staff, security staff etc for performing their duties at Metro Bus Service,” she said. She said that they were not government employees but purely daily wagers hired from private companies.

Like other parts in the country, Rawalpindi and Islamabad also wear a deserted look because of prolonged lockdown. All shopping malls, markets, government and private offices, restaurants, hotels, cafes, sweet shops and majority of other businesses have remained closed for over a month.

Thousands of workers are not only deprived of their salaries but facing unemployment and hunger also. The owners refused to pay them in lockdown situation. Talking to ‘The News’ unemployed, poor and hungry people have strongly condemned government policies and said that lockdown situation has broken their back. Prime Minister Imran Khan is only giving statements and has done nothing to address public grievances, they denounced.

Muhammad Sajjad, working in a cloth shop before the lockdown, said that government is neither providing them ‘roti’ nor allowing them to work. “Police comes when we open shops, how we could survive in this situation,” he denounced. He bemoaned that if they will not die of corona but will definitely die with hunger and poverty.

Riaz Ahmed, an employee of the Metro Bus Service, said that the company left his family and those of many of his colleagues starving as they have not been paid for three months. Prime Minister Imran Khan has directed to pay all employees in lockdown situation but his directives have not been followed in case of Metro Bus Authority management, he said.

Shazia Minhas, a working lady, said that she is a saleswoman in a shop in Islamabad. The shop owner is yet to pay her salary and warned to sack her next month. “Where is government where is Imran Khan and where is justice,” she denounced.