PESHAWAR: Employees of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Directorate-General of the Local Government and Rural Development on Tuesday locked their of fices to protest the alleged manhandling of their colleagues by relief and rehabilitation minister Mohammad Iqbal Wazir over a recruitment issue.

The protesters announced that the strike would continue until the chief minister removed the minister and the police registered an FIR against him.

No work took place at the offices of the directorate and tehsil and village and neighbourhood councils to the misery of people, who showed up for the issuance of birth and death certificates and verification of documents for new identity cards and passports.

A senior official of the DG office told Dawn that a complete strike was observed across the province and it would continue until demands were met.

He said assistant directors led demonstrations in different districts, while secretaries of the village and neighborhood councils attended them. He said a large rally would be staged in the provincial capital tomorrow (Wednesday).

The decision about the locking of offices was made in a meeting on Monday that was attended by the DG, directors and assistant directors from across the province, presidents of the local council associations, and heads of the All Secretaries Association at the village and neighborhood councils.The of ficial said the DG of fice`s employees also held a meeting on Tuesday with members of the local council association, which represented all tehsil municipal of ficers.

He said the TMOs had announced support for the strike and said employees of tehsil municipal administrations would partially participate in the strike by wearing black armbands and displaying banners outside their of fices and if action wasn`t taken against the minister, those employees, too, would join the strike and suspended sanitation services.

The of ficial said no government representative had contacted protesters on the matter.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that minister Iqbal Wazir visited the DG`s of fice on Friday night along with armed supporters and held the employees hostage while demanding the appointment of his men to the Class-IV posts in North Waziristan tribal district.

He insisted that the chief minister had `verbally` ordered the filling of a certain number of Class-IV posts in North Waziristan on the recommendation of the relevant lawmakers and other authorities, but minister Iqbal Wazir asked officials of the directorate to recruit only those recommended by him against vacancies.

Assistant director Ilyas Afridi led a demonstration in Nowshera city, which was attended by the secretaries of village and neighbourhood councils.

The protesters held placards inscribed with slogans against minister Iqbal Wazir.

They said the strike would continue if FIR wasn`t registered against the minister.

Assistant director Ilyas Afridi told Dawn that `hooliganism` by the minister was tantamount to attacking the DG office and insulting its employees.

`We [employees] have joined the government service to serve the people and not to be disrespected by ministers,` he said.