KOHAT: Hundreds of employees of the tehsil municipal administrations (TMAs) of Kohat and Lachi staged a protest on Thursday against the non-payment of salaries and pensions for last three months.

Addressing the protesting workers, president of employees association of Lachi, Bashir Badshah, set the deadline of Monday for payment of their dues after which they would observe a pen-down strike and stop all cleanliness work and water supply.

The protesting employees said that over Rs10 million wereoutstanding on account of their salaries.They said that they had been asking the local government to provide funds as their TMA could not generate money and was unable to provide finances.

They expressed anguish that the government had no funds for the lower and middle class workers, but the ministers, judges and bureaucrats were enjoying all perks of free petrol and electricity in addition to lucrative salaries.

The chairman of the All Pakistan Clerks Association and employees association, Sakhi Badshah of Kohat TMA, said that the Water Supply and Sanitation Company (WSSC) was paid salaries and pensions from their account. He said the TMA should discontinue the payment of salaries to the workers sent on deputation to WSSC, which had ample resources to take the burden. He said that they had been told that they would not be paid the promised amount in December.

Sakhi Badshah resented that the TMA owned billion worth of plazas, markets and shops, but had leased out the property by charging old rates of Rs5,000 against the market rate of Rs40,000 to Rs60,000 for shops depending on the location. He alleged that the bribes went from top to bottom.

He suggested that a high-level inquiry should be conducted into a racket where a single person had been given three shops and was paying Rs15,000 to the TMA.

Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2022