Sanghar (Hasnain Ashiq Saand) On the call of Sindh Employees Alliance chief Haji Muhammad Ashraf Khaskheli, employees of various provincial departments staged a complete lockdown in Tando Adam on Tuesday to protest against the Sindh government’s pension reforms, group insurance policies, DRA, benevolent fund issues and what they termed as “anti-worker policies.”
Educational institutions, including New Aligarh Government Degree College, Shah Abdul Latif, Jamia Millia, Sir Syed, Fatima Jinnah, Sindhi Main and Urdu Main schools, remained closed as part of the protest. Employees from SPLA, GSTA, PTAlf, APCA, paramedical staff, revenue, agriculture, irrigation and other departments joined the shutdown.
Speaking to protesting workers, GSTA Sanghar district general secretary Fazlullah Umrani, Tando Adam president Gul Muhammad Nizamani, PTAlf taluka president Lakha Dino Khaskheli and others, strongly criticised the Sindh government.
They said the proposed pension reforms amounted to “economic murder of employees” and denounced the nominal salary increases as meaningless in the face of soaring inflation, while lawmakers had approved a 200 per cent raise in their own salaries and perks.
The speakers demanded immediate withdrawal of what they described as “oppressive and anti-employee measures” and called for group insurance and benevolent funds to be paid to staff at the time of retirement, terming them the fundamental rights of government employees.
