BY LISA MACDONALD

A strike of public sector workers, launched on April 15 in Quetta, Baluchistan, continues to paralyse life in the city.

Led by the militant Baluchistan Civil Secretariat Staff Association (BCSSA), the strike involves paramedics, clerks, teachers and municipal workers. They are demanding that the provincial government pay them a 40% utility and special allowance. Workers in 25 other districts of the province have been getting the allowance for more than three years.

On the first day of the strike, the Baluchistan government used the Anti-Terrorist Force, with armoured vehicles and hundreds of police, against the striking workers.

BCSSA leaders' houses have been systematically raided and there have been repeated baton charges against the workers' street demonstrations. Up to 300 workers have been arrested, including BCSSA president Abdul Khaliq Kakar.

From Green Left Weekly, May 8, 2002.
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