HYDERABAD: Employees of forest department boycotted work and staged a demonstration here on Thursday in protest against shifting of the department`s budget and account office from Hyderabad to Karachi.

They appealed to chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the decision and called for cancellation of the July 31 notification for the transfer of office. A principal chief conservator of forests and the budget office under him must remain in Hyderabad so that lower staff could get their issues resolved here, they demanded.

Leaders of the All Pakistan Clerks Association (APCA) Sikandar Ali Bhangar, Ghulam Qadir Baloch and president of Forest Workers Welfare Association Abdullah Palari and forest budget and account officer Abdul Ghani Kandhro, who led the protest, blamed personal secretary to forest secretary and a section officer for forcing budget and account officer (BAO) to skim for them 15 per cent commission from each allocation of the forest department`s budget.

The accounts officer suffered severe stroke of hypertension because of the pressure and had to be admitted in a cardio hospital a couple of days ago, they said in a press release.

They alleged that the secretary of forest had encroached upon hundreds of acres of forest land in Matiari in violation of Supreme Court orders to get the state land vacated.

They said that payment of salaries of July and August before Eidul Azha had been delayed deliberately in view of shifting of the budget office.

They warned that if their demands were not met, they would commit self-immolation and announced a phase-wise protest on a daily basis till Aug 30, which would include token hunger strike, pen down strike, boycott of office work and protests.