Interior Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed on Sunday said that the firing of “a little tear gas” on protesting government employees had been necessary to test the gas as “it had been unused for a long time”.
While a ceremony in Rawalpindi, the interior minister claimed that only a small amount of tear gas had been used. However, reports indicate 1,000 tear gas shells had been fired at the protesters to disperse them.
The protest of government employees for an increase in salaries and other demands near Pakistan Secretariat earlier this week saw the police arresting several protestors while those stuck in the Secretariat Block broke the door to escape.
The protest had ended a day after the incident when the government agreed to increase the basic pay of federal government employees from grades 1 to 19 by 25 per cent.
Demonstrations had been held at several points of the city, including Constitution Avenue, outside Secretariat Block, Cabinet Block and outside the National Press Club.
Later, the protesters had started a march towards the Parliament House to intercept which police placed containers on the roads, sealing off D-Chowk.
“Action will be taken against the ones who took law in their hands,” a statement by a police spokesperson had said.
At the time, Rasheed had said the government was continuously engaged in talks with the Federal government employees protesting here to resolve their salaries issues.
The government’s parliamentary committee had already held negotiations with All Government Employees Grand Alliance (AGEGA) and the committee had agreed to increase the pay of 16-grade employees in spite of the protest, he had said talking to a private news channel.
The minister had said that the protestors were now demanding to raise salaries of employees up to 22 scales which were impossible for the government as the country was already confronting financial crunch.
22-grade officials had been fully supporting and even inciting the employees to protest and create anarchy, he had added.
He had said that the incumbent government intended to increase salaries of the federal employees up to 16-grade.
He had added that, due to the 18th amendment, the federal government was not bound to increase salaries of employees of the provinces.
Rasheed had said that the police personnel had taken actions against violators of law during the protest.
PDM’s LONG MARCH:
During his address today, the interior minister had said that the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) would be welcome as long as they followed the law. He said that if they did not stay within the limits of the law and the Constitution, then “Islamabad would be Islamabad”.
“I want to tell the whole PDM that if you [remain] within the limits during the long march here, there will be no problem, no obstacle. If you want to come to Islamabad while remaining within the limits of the law, come 10 times because you will have to return. You do not have the strength.”
He also said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) 126-day sit-in had been the most difficult thing he had done in his life.
Regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, he said the country was nearly out of the woods now, stating that Prime Minister Imran Khan and the army had led a “jihad” against the novel disease.
“People who utter bad words against this great army should have their tongues pulled out,” he maintained, referring to the soldiers who were martyred in an attack in South Waziristan earlier this week. “No PML-N [Paksitan Muslim League-Nawaz] member can say anything against the army. If he does, he is not a [member of the N-League].”
The interior minister termed frequent martyrdoms of soldiers in terrorist attacks “a plot to destabilise the country from within”.
