IT is a matter of grave concern that hundreds of thousands of the employees and pensioners of the Punjab Government have been forced to go for pen-down strike and lodge protest over gross discrimination in pay raise and denial of key retirement benefits. The apathy shown by the concerned authorities to the grievances of the employees and pensioners and the impact of their strike on daily life in the province is all the more regrettable.
Punjab, being the largest populated province of the country is supposed to serve as a role model for other provinces but unfortunately it is not even matching the good examples set by smaller provinces as far as welfare of the employees is concerned. For the last many years, employees of the Punjab Government have not received ad-hoc increases and other perks and privileges as have been granted to the employees of three other provinces, GB and Azad Kashmir and as a result their salaries are much less than their fellows in other federating units. This was already a source of heart-burning but the latest decisions of the Punjab Government have exacerbated the situation further. Apart from failure of the province to give matching pay and pension raises to its employees, it also took drastic decisions like grant of pension on initial basic and denial of leave encashment benefit to retiring employees. One fails to understand how the Punjab Government can deny these benefits in a federation as Punjab employees are not immune to unprecedented price-hike. What a sorry state of affairs that we raise high sounding slogans but are not willing to pay due salaries and pensions! Attention of the Prime Minister was drawn to the discriminatory policies of the Punjab Government before Eid, who promised to take up the matter with the caretaker Chief Minister (who was then abroad) but nothing positive has transpired. The wrong decisions must be taken back without loss of further time.
