Govt employees stage protest for increase in salaries

The government employees of the Punjab Civil Secretariat and 38 provincial departments staged a massive protest demonstration, demanding increments in salary equivalent to the rest of the country.

In the sweltering heat, protesters caused a massive traffic jam.

The residents had trouble getting to their homes, hospitals, workplaces, and businesses.

The district administration and the government of Punjab were unable to reach an agreement with the protesting employees to conclude the sit-in amicably.

It took until the evening for the situation on the city's main roadways to return to normal. The third day of the strike has passed with not much indication that the conflicts have been settled.

The Mall Road, Lower Mall, Chauburji, Ferozepur Road, Lohari, Islampura, Sant Nagar, Lake Road, AG Office, Jail Road, Data Sahib, Bhatti Chowk, Bilalganj, Urdu Bazaar Road, Old Anarkali, Jain temple and other areas faced the worst traffic congestion.

According to sources, all Government Employees Alliance was created to pressure the Punjab government in complying with their demands.

According to the protestors' leaders, the federal government hiked staff pay by 35% in the yearly budget. Following suit, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and Sindh provincial administrations increased wages by 30 to 35 percent.

On the basis of the prior basic wage, the Punjab government did, however, raise the salaries of government employees.

The head of the All Pakistan Clerks Association's Lahore division, Chaudhry Mukhtar Ahmed Gujjar, stated that the Punjab government should have raised public employee pay and other benefits in line with the federal government.

Millions of employees had experienced financial difficulty as a result of the divergence. He claimed that there had been inflation of over 100%, but the salary of the provincial government employees had been increased by merely 5% to 7%.