Pakistan's Government Workers Demand an Increase in Salaries

The All Government Employees Grand Alliance Pakistan (AGEGAP) and the 2020 Sit-In

In May 2020, the Government of Pakistan announced its financial budget for 2020-2021, promising increases in salaries among other improvements. However, due to economic issues in the country, the government failed to increase the salaries of government employees. 

Upon this announcement, the government employees were disappointed and upset: inflation rates were increasing day by day in Pakistan, and workers were not provided any subsidies. They took serious notice of this issue and held several meetings with union leadership at the local level. Federations and unions of the public sector of the KPK province held a meeting on said issue and ended the meeting with joint negotiations of all leadership, deviding to establish the All Government Employees Grand Alliance Pakistan (AGEGAP).

The PWF played an important and active bridging role between local and regional leadership in this movement, starting strong protests with AGEGAP at the local and district levels. PWF regional and local leadership fully supported AGEGAP, establishing provincial bodies for AGEGAP in all provinces, as well as estbalished the Federal Government Employees Grand Alliance (FGEGA). 22 federal unions participated in FGEGA. 

According to mutual understanding,  AGEGAP leadership tried to meet with government officials for negotiations on their charter of demands and also wrote several letters to officials, but no positive response was received from the government. AGEGAP thus announced their plan to stage a protest in front of Parliament House along with other public sector unions throughout Pakistan.

On October 6, 2020, more than 30,000 government employees staged a protest in front of the Parliament House to express their demands. During this protest, many Senators and Members of the National Assembly stood in solidarity with the government employees.