ISLAMABAD: About 1,200 employees of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) have not received salaries for over a year amid uncertainty about the organisation`s future after devolution of the tourism ministry under the 18th Amendment.

While the government is pondering over the corporation`s future, its employees have been facing extreme hardship, an official told Dawn.

`We have not only apprised the PML-N government of our miseries but also the last government, but have got no relief,` he said.

While the ministry of tourism has been devolved to the provinces along with some other federal ministries, the status of the PTDC and its employee still hangs in the balance.

It had been decided that all 42 motels and resorts of the PTDC, worth billions of rupees, would be sold to the provinces through a liguidation process, but the ministry of inter-provincial coordination (IPC), which is looking after the affairs of the corporation intends to hand over the control of the assetswithout liquidation.

PTDC`s acting Managing Director Furgan Bahadur, who is a joint secretary in the IPC ministry, said many of the employees had not received their salaries for over 16 months.

He said the IPC ministry had sought an annual grant from the government to pay the salaries.

`We are hopeful that we will receive the grant in a couple of days and then the salaries will be paid.

Recently, the employees sought the help of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Chairman Khursheed Shah.

`On our complaints, Mr Shah called IPC Minister Riaz Pirzada and asked him to mitigate the suffering of the employees,` Junaid Jadoon, an office-bearer of the PTDC employees` union, said.

He said the minister had informed the PAC chairman that the incumbent MD and his deputy were incompetent to deal with the issue and he had sent a summary to the prime minister for appointment of a regular managing director and deputy MD.

The employees have also filed petitions before courts to seek justice.