HYDERABAD, May 6: A large number of clerks marched from the Shahbaz Building to the press club here on Thursday to protest against non-acceptance of their demands.

Speaking on the occasion, the president of the All Pakistan Clerks Association, Hyderabad, Ashraf Bozai, and office-bearers Syed Imtiaz Shah, Shabbir Mallah, Khalid Qureshi and others demanded that salaries of employees of government and semi-government organizations should be increased commensurate with the rise in prices of consumer goods.

They said that government employees should be paid house rent in accordance with the pay scale announced 2000 but they were being paid the same as per the 1991 pay scale. They said that they were only paid Rs170 as conveyance allowance.

Meanwhile, a delegation of the association met Hyderabad city People's Party Parliamentarians president MPA Zahid Ali Bhurgari and apprised him of problems confronting low-paid employees. The MPA assured the delegation that he would raise voice on the floor of the Sindh Assembly for rights of the employees.

HUNGER STRIKE: The Anjuman Tajran-i-Hyderabad observed a token hunger strike outside the press club here on Thursday to protest against the shifting of revenue and other offices from the former Hyderabad Collectorate building to a remote place.

Talking to journalists, their leaders, Saleem Vohra, Ikramuddin Guddu, Yousuf Memon, Hameed Memon and others, complained that the revenue office, city survey office, sugar cane commissioner office and many other offices were being shifted from the centre of the city.

They said that this would cause inconvenience not only to the business community but also to residents of the city. They warned that they would block roads, observe shutter-down strike and launch a protest movement if the shifting of the offices was not cancelled in a week.

They said that they would also go to court for seeking justice if their genuine demands were not accepted. People's Party Parliamentarians MPA Zahid Ali Bhurgari also observed a token hunger strike to express solidarity with the business community.