HYDERABAD, Oct 12: A large number of former employees of the UBL whose services were terminated on Oct 12, 1997, held a demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday to protest against delay in their reinstatement.

Speaking on the occasion, the chairman of the sacked employees action committee, Abdul Naeem Memon and Rao Saboor Khan said that within a matter of five minutes, 5,416 employees of the UBL were relieved of their duties on October 12, 1997.

They said that the families of the sacked employees were starving as they were not given even handshake amount. They claimed that Ms Benazir Bhutto had held out a promise to the sacked employees that they should consider themselves on leave and that whenever PPP returned to power, they would be reinstated.

They appealed to President Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the co-chairman of the PPP, to honour the promise of Ms Benazir Bhutto.

They claimed that they had also met the federal ministers Syed Khursheed Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar and others who had promised to reinstate them.

They, however, regretted that the matter was being delayed and once again appealed to the PPP government to honour its promises.

PROTEST: A large number of UBL and Hesco employees staged a protest demonstration outside the press club here on Sunday against the regional head of UBL, Ghafoor Brohi for his anti-labour policies. They carried banners and placards, demanding the dismissal of Brohi.