KARACHI: More than 9,500 Christian workers of the civic
agencies could not get their salaries before their annual Christmas
festival to celebrate it properly with their families.
The workers, as a protest, have announced that they would celebrate Christmas on the road along the Karachi Press Club.
These
workers are associated with the district municipal corporations (7,000
workers) and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board (2,500 workers) and
have not been paid owing to the lethargic attitude of the Sindh
government bureaucrats, who did not release the funds in time.
This
is not the first time that the civic workers have not received the
advance salary in time to celebrate their religious festival properly.
Earlier, Muslim as well as Hindu workers were also not paid in time and
could not celebrate their respective religious festivals — Eidul Azha
and Diwali.
The Sindh High Court had ordered on Dec 19
that the Christian workers be paid by Dec 20, 2017 so that they could
celebrate Christmas, but the Sindh government bureaucracy did not follow
the court order.
Responding to Dawn queries, All
Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation leader Zulfiqar Shah said
it was a pity that despite the high court order the workers were not
paid. He said that the workers in Punjab were always paid before the
festivals, but in Sindh the government did not do the same. He said that
earlier this year the Muslim and Hindu workers were also not paid
before Eidul Azha and Diwali.
KWSB’s United Workers
Union leaders Joseph Sanam, Punhal Magsi, Akram Khan and others,
condemning the water board management for nonpayment of salaries to the
over 2,500 Christian workers, also announced that the workers, along
with their families, would celebrate Christmas and perform their
religious rites on the road near the Press Club on Monday.
They
also criticised the management for its discriminatory attitude towards
minority community workers, overwhelming majority of whom were low-grade
employees working as health workers and kundi men.
They also urged the Sindh High Court chief justice to take suo motu notice of this “criminal act” of the KWSB management.
