FAISALABAD:
Employees of Faisalabad Electricity Supply Company (Fesco), in a protest on Thursday, hit out at the government for deciding to privatise the power utility and appointing a chief executive officer from the private sector.
The employees questioned the capability of private sector CEOs, saying they did not have the technical knowhow to run state-run electricity companies. They also opposed any move to withdraw free electricity facility for employees of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) and Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco).
If the demands were not met, they threatened that they would lock up Fesco and stop electricity supply after December 14.
“Thousands of employees are perturbed about the fast-track privatisation process for Fesco and the rally was joined by eight districts served by the company,” said Tahir Sheikh, a spokesman for the power company. They feared lay-offs on a massive scale, he said.
“The government wants to make Fesco look like Railways,” said Gazanfer Ali, Chairman of Fesco Officer Association, adding the power utility’s privatisation would become a nightmare like that of Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC).
“The government was pursuing negative policies to push this profitable enterprise into deficit,” he said.
Fesco Engineers Association deputy chief Masood Salahuddin suggested that the government should focus on cheap electricity generation for improving agricultural and industrial sectors, which in turn could boost the economy.
Declaring Fesco privatisation illogical, he said the government had failed to control power outages.
“The privatisation of power companies is not a solution and the government should take all stakeholders into confidence before taking a decision,” said Muhammad Rasheed, Regional Secretary of Fesco’s Hydro Union.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 9th, 2011.
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This is to be expected. Either we do it and face the consequences or we do not.
No one should be put out on the street. They are compensation packages that must be written into their contracts based on last-drawn pay and years of service.
The privatization of banks was handled very well. That is the model we should use. There was NO protest that I recall because the labor was compensated generously using money from the soft arm of the World Bank.