The police have registered criminal cases against key leaders of sacked workers of Telephone Industries of Pakistan (TIP) who have been protesting for the past few weeks against non-payment of salaries and demanding regularisation.
According to the city police, cases have been filed against TIP Employees and Workers Union General Secretary Syed Usman Sherazi and other leaders, including Shahbaz Khan Tareen, Basharat Tanoli, Saima Sadiq, Farooq Sultan, Muhammad Sadiq and Abdul Hafeez.
The complaint was registered by District Security Branch Sub-Inspector Safdar Khan against the union leaders under Sections 147 and 341 of the PPC. However, no arrest was made till the filing of this report.
On Monday, dozens of workers, including teachers and paramedics, took to the streets and blocked Khanpur-Taxila Road in front of TIP’s main gate for about 35 minutes. They later moved outside the office of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Omar Ayub on GT Road and protested for about an hour, blocking traffic on two busy thoroughfares.
The protesters chanted slogans against the federal government and said the PML-N had rendered over 830 workers jobless. They pointed out that these employees had served the organisation for over 20 years as contractual workers.
Employees said the previous Pakistan Peoples Party government had ordered the regularisation of their services before the 2013 general elections, but the PML-N failed to implement the circular and instead refused to renew their contracts in April this year.
They claimed workers had been attending their duties as the union had obtained a court stay order against the sacking. However, none of them had been paid since May.
After assurances from MNA Omar Ayub, the protesters cleared the road and allowed traffic to flow. However, the police registered cases against them on Tuesday.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 17th, 2014.
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