Village council secretaries go on strike in Chitral

CHITRAL: Around 100 village council secretaries in Chitral on Monday went on a pen-down strike, demanding upgradation of their jobs and other facilities.

The village council secretaries earlier held a protest rally and gathered outside the local press club. The protesters were carrying placards and banners and chanting slogans.

Later, speaking at a press conference, representatives of the secretaries led by Aftab Alam said that in Punjab the village council secretaries were appointed in grade 14 while in KP senior secretaries were given 11 and juniors nine scales. 

They said the secretaries performed lots of work such as preparing development plans, maintaining birth and death records and issuing birth and death certificates.  

They said the secretaries had been demanding upgradation and a separate quota for promotion but the government did not do anything but was exploiting the officials.

They warned that their strike would continue if the government did not accept their demands.

They also said that the secretaries would not attend the oath-taking ceremony of the recently-elected members of the local government across Chitral.–Muhkam Uddin Ayuni