The government employees of the Punjab Civil Secretariat and 38 provincial departments staged a massive protest demonstration, demanding salary hike equivalent to the rest of the country.

The protest caused a huge stuck-up on the roads under the boiling heat.

The citizens faced difficulties in going to offices, homes and business centres.

The Punjab government and district administration failed to negotiate with the protesting employees for ending the sit-in peacefully.

The situation on the main roads of the provincial capital could not normalise till the evening.

The strike has entered into the third day, with no indication of the contentious issues being resolved.

The Mall Road, Lower Mall, Chauburji, Ferozepur Road, Lake Road, AG Office, Jail Road, Data Sahib, Bhatti Chowk, Lohari, Islampura, Sant Nagar, Bilalganj, Urdu Bazaar Road, Old Anarkali, Jain temple and other areas faced the worst traffic congestion.

Sources said an All Government Employees Alliance had been formed to force the Punjab government to accept their demands.

Leaders of the protesters said the federal government had increased the salaries of its employees by 35 per cent in the annual budget. The provincial governments in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan and Sindh followed the federal government and raised the salaries by 30 to 35 per cent.

However, the Punjab government increased the salaries of civil servants on the basis of the previous basic salary.

All Pakistan Clerks Association Lahore division president Chaudhry Mukhtar Ahmed Gujjar said the Punjab government should have increased the salaries of government employees and other facilities on the pattern of the federal government.

The deviation had resulted in economic hardship for millions of employees.

He said there had been inflation of over 100%, but the salary of the provincial government employees had been increased by merely five to seven per cent.