MULTAN, July 2: Hundreds of terminated employees of the National Commission for Human Development (NCHD) held a demonstration outside the local press club on Wednesday to protest retrenchment of the commission’s staff to around 50 per cent.

Holding banners and placards carrying reinstatement demands, sacked NCHD employees from Multan, Lodhran, Bahawalpur, Bahawalnagar, Rajanpur, Dera Ghazi Khan, Muzaffargarh, Khanewal, Vehari, Layyah, Toba Tek Singh, Pakpattan and Okara districts participated in the demonstration.

They said 22,445 NCHD employees had been terminated after the government decided decreasing the commission’s funding to 50 per cent.

They said about 1.7 million children were enrolled in schools through Universal Primary Education Programme of the NCHD and 3,500 community schools were established under this programme while hundreds of thousands of teachers were employed in public schools to ensure the provision of standard education.

They said there were 67,000 adult literacy centres established in 114 districts and about 1.6 million illiterate women were enrolled in these centres while the NCHD had started three programmes in health sector, including the Punjab Integrated Primary Health Care Model Program, National ORS Campaign and School Health Programme to improve health conditions in the country.

They said the number of NCHD employees was cut to 50 per cent due to the 50 per cent reduction in the NCHD funds and over 22,000 people became jobless.

RESCUE 1122: The Punjab Emergency Service (Rescue 1122) has rescued 2,000 victims of emergencies in 1,701 operations during the month of June. It was stated by Rescue 1122 Public Relations Officer Abidah Zulfiqar in a press release issued here on Wednesday.

She said the emergency calls to which Rescue 1122 staffers responded in Multan include 478 road accidents, 36 fire incidents and 1,186 other emergencies.