SWABI: Government employees plan to hold a peaceful protest in front of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly in Peshawar on May 29 against the proposed pension reforms.

The decision was taken at a meeting attended by representatives of different organisations of employees from across the Swabi on Tuesday.

Shaukat Ali Anjum, central president of Pakistan Workers Federation, chaired the meeting held at Bacha Khan Teaching Hospital.

The participants declared that they would not allow the government to ‘exploit’ them. They said government employees were being victimised in the name of pension reforms. However, they said they won’t allow this ‘cruelty and injustice’.

It was unanimously decided that all employees of Swabi district would gather at Anbar Interchange at 9am on May 29 and leave for Peshawar.

Through a unanimously adopted resolution, the participants demanded that the medical superintendent of the District Headquarters Hospital should be transferred immediately.

They also demanded issuance of a notification regarding service structure of local government employees.

Meanwhile, retired employees have said taxing them in the upcoming budget will be a great injustice with the financially-stressed people.

Speaking at a meeting and later talking to reporters on Tuesday, they said the government had failed to control back-breaking inflation.

The participants expressed deep anguish over the International Monetary Fund’s condition to tax pensioners.

A leader of pensioners, Abdul Latif, said the government strived to generate additional revenues to meet the conditions of IMF, which would push the poor pensioners to the brink of bankruptcy, making it difficult for them to survive.

“The inflation-stricken pensioners are looking for relief in the upcoming budget, but the government is hell-bent on further burdening the salaried class and pensioners,” he said, adding the plan to withdraw income tax exemption from various pension schemes would be akin to economic murder of retired employees.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2024