With the government bent on privatising state-owned entities, it is important that rights of workers are protected.
KARACHI: This is with reference to Ally R Memon’s article published on March 27 titled “Trade unions, workers representation and the privatisation process”. I endorse his views and would like to add some of my own observations. Trade unions, in my opinion, can play a very important part in an organisational setting, as far as protecting the rights of workers and looking after their welfare is concerned. Unfortunately, in Pakistan, trade union office-bearers are only elected/selected for protecting the managements of organisations and seemingly only benefit them. Nobody is bothered about protecting employees’ welfare and rights. This is the basic reason for the failure of trade unions in Pakistan as they have not fulfilled the functions they are supposed to perform.
With the government bent on privatising state-owned entities, it is important that rights of workers are protected during this process. In this regard, it is suggested that a conference of eminent economists, broad-minded businessmen, scholars, representative of trade unions and the general public be convened by the federal government, to seek their suggestions for the present privatisation plan. It is important that all stakeholders address the important question of whether all ills faced by state-owned entities will be resolved after they are privatised. If there are government-run organisations, whose privatisation is not needed and the government still plans on selling them off, what are the reasons behind it? The core reasons behind the decline of our state-owned enterprises must be explored. Many organisations are running into losses because of inefficiency and corruption, which has turned profit-making entities into dying bodies; it is better to root out corruption rather than entirely selling off these national concerns at throwaway prices.
What is needed is the ouster of corrupt officials, cleansing of political influence from organisations and the appointment of honest and dedicated boards of directors and chief executives to give these bodies a new life. If the process of selling our national assets continues, without regard to our interests and without care for worker rights, it could spell disaster for our country.
Taimoor Sulaiman Kazi
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2014.
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