Karak: The local police have arrested more than 100 workers of Oil International MOL Company, a foreign oil and gas exploration company, for protesting at the main gates of the Central Processing Facility Makori here.
The workers were demanding increment in salaries and to be regularized in the company as they claimed to be working on daily-wages for years. The MOL Pakistan daily-wage workers had been on strike for several weeks to demand better wages and permanent jobs.
The workers blocked the facility’s main gates and thus, restricting the movement of MOL Pakistan officials and vehicles. The police later showed up and arrested more than 100 protesters and shifted them to Karak, Sabirabad, Band Daud Shah and other police stations in the district for interrogation, the police also registered cases against arrested workers.
Local residents later blocked the Kohat-Bannu Road for hours against arrests and burned old tyres; they demanded the immediate unconditional release of workers. The people alleged that the MOL Pakistan exploited their rights and had been denying permanent jobs to daily wagers for years.
