LAHORE, July 18: The PTCL is paying salaries to all its employees in accordance with rules and regulations without any discrimination, besides incentives to hardworking and efficient staffers.

Responding to the statements of Rana Hasan, Malik Maqbool, Hammad Qureshi and Malik Habib of PTCL United Workers Alliance in this newspaper’s story “PTCL staff faces pay cut for rights struggle” on Monday, the company said: “There is no such group as PTCL United Workers Alliance neither registered with NIRC nor management is aware of its existence.”

The PTCL said the said persons were not its employees and had been sacked one year back on account of “misconduct” and “involvement in unlawful activities”.

“They are on bail in various criminal cases, suits for damage claims and sabotaging not only PTCL’s network but also to ruin country’s communication setup during the devastating floods.

The PTCL said not a single employee had ever been forcibly laid off, however, a Voluntary Separation Scheme was offered to its employees in 2008.

“In fact, the employees’ response to the scheme was so positive that the management had to refuse the applications of a number of employees who wanted to quit under this scheme to avoid shortage of staff,” it said.