KARACHI: A large number of local bodies employees in the interior of Sindh will be spending their Eid without getting their salaries and will stage a demonstration at the tomb of Zulfilcar Ali Bhutto to register their protest against the government on Eid day.

Responding to Dawn queries, All Pakistan Local Government Workers Federation chief Zulfiqar Shah condemned the government for not paying their salaries to approximately 90 per cent (approximately 35,000) of local government employees in the interior of the province and said that the workers would stage a demonstration at the Bhuttos` mausoleum in Garhi Khuda Bakhsh on Eidul Fitr.

He said owing to late disbursement of funds by the Sindh government to local bodies organisations and mismanagement of officials concerned, the salary could not be disbursed among a majority of the employees who would not be able to get clothes and other things for their families and children to celebrate Eid.

He said the Sindh government in some places had disbursed the Octroi Zila Tax (OZT) share to local bodies on June 26 and 27th, but the officials concerned used that money, which could only be used for salaries under the laws, to pay contractors, while in some other cases the government advised the State Bank to release the funds on Saturday (July 2) thus the funds could not reach the local bodies concerned in time and the salaries had not been disbursed.

He said that the employees, who would be spending Eid without their salaries, had decided to stage a demonstration at Zulfikar Ali Bhutto`s mausoleum on Eid day at 9am.

He said the demonstrators would also meet Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani to register protest.

He said that the local bodies employees had been staging demonstrations all over the province, including in Khairpur at Chief Minister Syed Qiam Ali Shah`s house to get their salaries, but failed to get their salaries.