Police ready to stop protesting govt employees from entering Red Zone today

ISLAMABAD: The Capital administration and police are all set to stop government employees from entering the ‘Red Zone’ because caravans of employees have started reaching the federal Capital for a sit-in in front of the Parliament House today (Tuesday).

The finance ministry has once again ruled out the possibility of immediately increasing salaries and perks of government employees despite a threat of indefinite strike by over five dozen organisations and labour unions from January 12, 2021.

All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) President Haji Muhammad Irshad told The News that government as per habit once again backed out of its promises regarding increasing salaries of public servants. He said last time we went back on government request and it promised to increase salaries but in vain.

Federal Secretariat Employees Core Committee President Rehman Bajwa said we will reach Parliament House at any cost. Government is continuously cheating us but now we will never spare them, he warned. He said the government is trying to harass dozens of employees but they will reach the Parliament House for a ‘sit-in’ at all costs. He said the government should take their demands seriously and warned that if it tried to use force against the protesters, they will lock down all streets and areas of the country. The interior ministry feared that the PDM - an alliance of 11 opposition parties, may hijack the employees’ protest, an official correspondence between the interior minister and the Prime Minister’s Office showed. The employees of the state-owned enterprises, pensioners and labour unions have announced to stage an indefinite sit-in in Islamabad from Tuesday. Interior Minister Sh Rashid had recommended that finance minister may immediately meet the clerks’ leadership and announce some way forward. However, the finance ministry did not agree to the proposal of immediately announcing the monetary benefits to thwart the protesters, according to the sources.

The government employees were demanding increase in their basic salaries by up to 100%, increase in their house allowance, medical allowance, conveyance allowance, and upgrade in posts of the clerks. The initial estimates show that the annual cost of these demands was over Rs100 billion that the finance ministry was not in a position to bear due to budget deficit related conditions, set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).