PESHAWAR: The sacked project employees of the Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) have demanded of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government to reinstate them and make their jobs permanent on the pattern of project employees of other departments.

Speaking at a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Monday, SIDB employees’ union office-bearers led by Kashifa Noreen threatened that if the provincial government did not reinstate the sacked employees within seven days they would observe a protest sit-in outside the Chief Minister’s House.

She said that the SIDB project had been closed in June 2021 on the pretext of lack of funds, rendering hundreds of employees unemployed. She said most of the laid-off employees were women, who worked in 24 centres across the province to teach skills to women in backward areas.

Ms Noreen said that of the 109 employees laid off, 80 were women, adding that the sacked employees had been playing an important role for last 20 years in development of the province.

She said thousands of women had been trained in Karak and other areas, who were supporting their families. She claimed that there was no shortage of funds with the SIDB.

Published in Dawn, November 29th, 2022