Pakistan: Unions shut down Balochistan government workers’ strike as state threatens crackdown
A two-week strike by thousands of long-exploited government sector workers in Pakistan’s Balochistan province was shut down by an alliance of trade unions last Friday following a court order declaring their job action “illegal.”
The strikers, who are confronting menacing threats of state repression, are demanding a pay hike of 25 percent, and allowances like those paid provincial government workers in other provinces. The demand for higher wages resonates among working people across the country, who are struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living skyrockets.
Workers Struggles: Asia, Australia and New Zealand
9 April 2021
Pakistan: Striking Balochistan government workers block major highways
Ignoring calls from authorities to return to work, thousands of government workers in Balochistan, Pakistan’s largest province, are continuing their struggle for a 25 percent across the board pay increase and the same allowances paid in other provinces. On Monday the strikers, including health and education workers, enforced a virtual cut-off of Balochistan from the rest of the country with a blockade of the main highways.
A sit-down protest was held outside the provincial assembly in the capital Quetta with other demonstrations held across the province. Education workers have said they will boycott high-school exams scheduled to begin on April 10. A polio vaccination campaign due this week was also postponed as workers conducting mobile vaccination campaigns joined the strike.
BHC orders government employees to end sit-in
Chief justice also orders sacking of teachers who refuse to end matric exams boycott
BHC Chief Justice Mir Muhammad Noor Meskanzai says he will provide all kinds of assistance, facilities. PHOTO COURTESY: BALOCHISTAN EXPRESS
QUETTA:
The Balochistan High Court on Friday ordered the members of All Balochistan Employees and Workers Grand Alliance to end their sit-in immediately and ordered the government to hold purposeful talks with the protesting government employees and not take any action against them.
A two-judge divisional bench headed by BHC Chief Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhel and Justice Kamran Mulakhel also ordered the imposition of cuts in non-development sector and increase revenue generation. Advocate General Arbab Tahir Kasi, finance secretary, additional chief secretary, and the commissioner of quetta appeared in court to face the petition filed by Advocate Munir Kakar and others pertaining to the sit-in being carried out
Teachers to boycott matric exams
All Balochistan Employees, Workers Grand Alliance threaten to
shut down Balochistan if demands not met today
PHOTO: REUTERS
QUETTA:
The members of All Balochistan Employees and Workers Grand Alliance on Tuesday announced to boycott the matric examinations in the province which are starting from April 10.
This development was confirmed by Workers Grand Alliance Vice President Haji Habib-ur-Rehman Mardanzai who himself is a teacher. The sit-in continued in the provincial capital on the ninth consecutive day. It began on March 29 last month with the protestors demanding a 25 per cent increase in salaries of Balochistan government employees all across the board. No rally will be held in Quetta this evening at the request of Education Minister Sardar Yar Muhammad Rind, Mardanzai said.
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