Hundreds of cash-strapped Pakistan Railways (PR) employees on Saturday locked down offices of the divisional superintendent (DS), Lahore to protest against the non-payment of their salaries for September, pension, GP funds and gas and electricity suspension.
On the call of the PR Employees Union, angry railways staff locked the main gate of the DS Lahore Office and many other offices to express their anger and annoyance against the pathetic attitude of the federal government towards miseries of over 70,000 railways employees. Protesting staff threatened to block road traffic by closing railway crossings all over the country if their demands were not met. They chanted slogans against the railways minister and federal government besides a sit-in at Boharwala Chowk, Allama Iqbal Road.
After staging a protest outside the Railways Headquarters for two consecutive days, protesters burnt tyres and blocked traffic. They demanded immediate release of funds under the Rs 14 billion bailout package for railways. While PR was suspending train services, non-release of funds under the railway bailout package, was creating another crisis with every day passing.
Protesters demanded that railway authorities should resolve the problem otherwise they would be forced to expand their protest.
Union leaders, addressing the protesters, strongly criticised the PR administration for adopting wrong policies that had put the organisation on the verge of collapse. Union Senior Vice-President Sheikh Anwar and others said the focus of the ministry was on importing coaches and locomotives from other countries.
The employees were demanding immediate restoration of gas supply to their seven residential colonies where since Friday, gas connections were disconnected owing to non-payment of outstanding payments. Payment of monthly salaries of work charge was being delayed for the last one year but now the payment of regular employees was also being delayed.
