Friday, 28 March 2014

Khursheed to go on hunger strike till death

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on Thursday threatened to go on hunger strike till death if the PML-N government went ahead with its plan to terminate the services of about 60,000 daily wagers and contractual employees.
“I will go on hunger strike in front of the Parliament House along with the daily wagers and contractual employees working in different departments,” Khursheed Shah said while speaking on a point of order in the National Assembly.

He said he had received reports that the government had finalised a plan to terminate the services of these employees while a number of employees serving in the Pakistan Electronic Media Authority (Pemra) and the Employees Old-Age Benefit Institution (EOBI) had also met him in this regard.

Warning the government to refrain from taking such decisions, the opposition leader reminded the PML-N leader that in the past such acts had resulted in premature end of their governments.

He said he had also talked to the prime minister whom he called an innocent and decent person and discussed the issue with him. “The prime minister told me that he is not aware of any such plan,” the PPP leader said.

But, he said, now he had received reports that the employees working on temporary basis were being shown the door.Syed Khursheed Shah also regretted the statement of the finance minister on the floor of the House that the government was not considering any raise in salaries and pensions for the next fiscal year. “What was the need to make such a statement that will only add to the frustration of the salaried people?” he asked.

The opposition leader claimed that the PPP government had raised the salaries of government employees by 125 percent in five years.

APP adds: Khursheed said that the youth of the country must not be made jobless as there had been no investment in the country for the last 15 years due to terrorism. The sacking of the youth might trigger a new wave of lawlessness as the unemployed youth might indulge in anti-social activities. The large-scale sackings might create frustration among the people, which would certainly benefit the anti-democratic forces.

Criticising the metro bus project of Rawalpindi and Lahore, he said over Rs80 billion was being squandered on such projects. Whereas the per annum salary of 100,000 employees was not more than Rs4 billion. He said the PPP government had regularised the services of 125,000 contractual employees without any discrimination. He said he personally knew that the financial position of the sacked employees of the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and Employees Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) was pitiable. After the induction of new employees, during the PPP era, the profit of EOBI had jumped from Rs5.3 billion to Rs11 billion due to the efforts and hard work of these employees, he claimed.

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