Metro Bus Service remains suspended as employees stage strike

LAHORE: Lahore’s Metro Bus Services suspended after its staffers went on strike over non-payment of their salaries for the past two months.

According sources, the strikers’ employees have been deprived of their salaries for the past two months. People who rely on the Metro buses for daily commute are facing hardships as a number of its stations have been shut by the protesting employees who have stopped issuing tickets.

The protesters’ employees said the issue concerning non-payment of salaries to the protesting employees has nothing to do with the authority. On the other hand, the Mass Transit Authority general manager said the provincial government makes timely payment of all dues to the company. He said the government will devise inquiry to identified actual cause.

Last year the Punjab cabinet’s standing committee on finance had rejected a proposal to jack up fares of the Metro Bus Services. Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Usman Buzdar had said the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf didn’t want to put the financial burden on the poor by hiking fares. He directed the authorities concerned to work out other viable means to expand the resources.