By Ashrafuddin Pirzada
LANDIKOTAL: All Government Employees Grand Alliance Khyber chapter held a protest demonstration outside the district education office and rejected the government proposed plan to finish or revise the pension of retired employees.
Hundreds of civil servants from health, education, Wapda, and other lines departments participated in the protest. The protest was led by All Teachers Association(ATA) presidents Naseer Shah Afridi and Sarwar Afridi.
The protesters were holding placards and banners inscribed with slogans in their favor. They also marched from the DEO Khyber office and gathered at Bab-e-Khyber.
Speakers including Naseer Shah, Sarwar Afridi, Attiq Khan Afridi, and others said that Imran Khan and his party were under the control of the International Monitory Fund(IMF) and other world wealth organizations. They said imposing new restrictions and cuts in salaries and pensions were the foreign agenda to further push 22 billion Pakistanis under the poverty line.
Naseer Shah said no Pakistani who served for 60 years and contributed all his life to Pakistan’ would not accept the proposed pension plan. He said the government should respect each civil servant who gave precious years of his or her life to Pakistan and served. He said that pensions are been given in Pakistan only but most of the world countries along with other retirement benefits regularly issue monthly pensions for their respective retired countrymen.
Sarwar Khan Afridi said that it would be an injustice to the government employees to deprive them of retirement pension as it was the lone source of income for an ailing retired person. He said to feed their families with a monthly pension was the legal and moral right of each Pakistani government servant.
The speakers alleged that Imran Khan wants to appease International Monitory Fund(IMF) but put a lifetime burden on retired civil servants.
They threatened that the if the decision takes to reform or revise the government employee’s pension they would extend their protest to Islamabad.
