ISLAMABAD, March 7: A token protest on Thursday, during which employees of attached departments of the federal government closed the gates of the Secretariat blocks for several hours, may only have been a precursor of a much larger protest on Friday.

The Federal Government Employees Coordination Committee has announced its support for the protesters.

Recently, the federal government approved a 20 percent increase in the basic salaries for around 10 ministries and divisions. Employees of attached departments - which include several wings of the Cabinet Division, such as the Commissionerate of Afghan Refugees, the National Archives and FPSC, and numbers around 7,000 personnel - are protesting over not being offered similar raises.

Mohammad Aziz, who works in the Archives department, said that colleagues in the Prime Minister's Secretariat, the Presidency and the Federal Board of Revenue were receiving up to 150 percent of the basic salary.

“Employees in the Supreme Court are getting 300 percent," he said. "No one wants to work in the attached departments because we are being unfairly treated.”

One protestor, Maqsood Hussain, said it was “strange” that the government forced employees to strike and protest “for their rights”, noting that the recent increases were announced after government employees locked the entry and exit points of the Secretariat for several hours. Strikes also forced the Finance Ministry to increase the salaries of federal audit and account group employees.

Persons from within the government have also criticized the selective increases. An official of the Finance Ministry claimed that the recent raises "amount to around Rs 600 million per month. It wouldn't make a major difference if the attached departments also received salary increases." He claimed that adding those departments would mean a few more million rupees per month.