Sacked employees threaten self-immolation

CHITRAL, June 26: More than 70 sacked employees of the population welfare department have warned the provincial government of collective self-immolation in front of the DC office if they were not reinstated. Addressing a press conference here on Thursday, the sacked employees of different cadres represented by Bibi Hajmina, Bibi Zainab, Sakina, Sikandar Khan, Jamshed Ahmed and others said they had been appointed on merit after qualifying the written tests and fulfilling codal formalities by the previous governments but they were sent home recently. They said that in the name of rightsizing, the present government was rendering thousands of people jobless while it was beating the trumpet of ‘justice’ and claiming to bring about social equity. They said that the sacked employees of the department had their service lengths ranging from four to fifteen years and were performing their duties in the population centres when they were sent packing which was tantamount to their financial murder. They lamented that b y losing their jobs, they will not be in a position to feed a morsel of bread to their jobs and they had no option other than ending their lives to get rid of the agony they were destined to pass through every day. They appealed to the chief justice of Peshawar High Court to take suo motto notice of their plight.–Zahiruddin]]>