Economist Group officers, low cadre staff stage protest

ISLAMABAD: Over 300 officers of the Economist Group and technical cadres from the planning ministry Tuesday staged a protest rally at the Pakistan Secretariat demanding executive allowance.

The participants of the protest wore black strips onto their shoulders to register their protest.

It is the first time in recent history that the officers participated in a protest rally on the Pak Secretariat premises. Earlier, only low-ranking employees had staged a protest rally.

The protesting officers warned that if the executive allowance was denied to them, then they would boycott the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec), Central Development Working Party (CDWP), and Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) related meetings from next week.

Earlier, Federal Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal and Minister for Information Marriyum Aurangzeb had written separate letters to the government for provision of executive allowance to the officers but of no avail.

The Planning Commission officers had raised the issue in the Ecnec meeting last week in which the secretary finance said the issue would be taken up with the IMF.

The aggrieved officers argued that the executive allowance was granted to the influential groups such as DMG and others but the officers of Planning Commission and Ministry of Information and Broadcasting were deprived, leaving them with no option but to start a protest.

The protesters said they waited for three months for provision of executive allowance but the government ignored their justified demand.

As per the strategy, they would boycott office work for two hours from 2pm to 4pm and no officer would comply with late sitting instructions after 4pm from Wednesday (today).

They also announced to approach the superior courts against the notification issued by the finance ministry depriving certain officers of the executive allowance.