960417

KMC workers

strike enters

5th day

RECORDER REPORT

KARACHI: All offices of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation, including principal and zonal, remained in the grip of strike by workers for the fifth day on Wednesday and only skeleton staff attended to their duties.

The strike on the call given by the United Workers Union to protest against the decentralisation of the KMC and the delay in the settlement of the terms and conditions of the municipal employees was comparatively peaceful on Wednesday as the protesters did not take out any procession for fear of section 144 violation.

However, various units of the KMC look deserted and the officers who were present in their offices were reluctant to offer any comment on the situation.

It was not only MQM(H), which has further extended its support to the strike but a section of Pakistan Peoples Party workers in the Districts South and East and the Karachi Water and Sewerage Board's have expressed backing for the " just cause of the UWU".

Kaniz Fatima who was leading the strike and was arrested on Tuesday is in the lock up at the Women Police Station for violating section 144. She has reportedly refused an offer of release made to her by a police high-up. She has demanded the release of the other 13 arrested workers kept at Risala and Aram Bagh Police Stations before she went out of the lock-up

Ahmed Masood Khan, Chairman, Anti Encroachment Cell, KMC, who is usually found performing most of the functions of the KMC on behalf of the administrator, when contacted to comment on the strike and a meeting held at the Sindh secretariat to consider the demands of the strikers, expressed his inability to say any thing.

UWU have decided to continue their strike indefinitely.