Power privatisation: Wapda and Pepco employees shut down their offices in protest

Workers announced to stage a sit-in in front of the Parliament House on December 21 .

SUKKUR / HYDERABAD: Enraged with the dissolution of Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO) and proposed privatisation of different distribution companies of Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda), its employees locked their offices and organised protest rallies and demonstrations throughout upper Sindh on Wednesday.

The workers organised rallies in Sukkur, Rohri, Panu Aquil, Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo, Ubauro, Daharki, Khairpur, Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore, Kandhkot, Naushahro Feroze, Larkana and other cities and towns.

The central president of Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Union, Abdul Latif Nizamani, said that the workers will stage a sit-in in front of the parliament house till their demands are accepted.  “On December 21, we will gather outside the parliament from all the cities of Pakistan.”

The union, according to Nizamani, has over 140,000 workers.  He led the protest rally in Hyderabad. The protestors carried a symbolic funeral of the federal minister for water and power, Syed Navid Qamar, and burnt his effigies.

Nizamani appealed to the Supreme Court of Pakistan to take notice of the privatisation which poses the risk of redundancy for thousands of workers, besides handing over of the strategic organisation to private owners.

Hundreds workers also participated in the protest in Sukkur which was led by Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union. The workers carried banners, placards and red flags and marched from their offices towards Minara Road and finally gathered at Mohammad Bin Qasim Park.

The union leaders, Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, Badarul-Islam and others termed the move  “intolerable.”

They also criticised the government for appointing chief executive officers who they said don’t have technical experience.  The leaders said that the country’s economy is already in a shambles and privatisation of Wapda will cause the electricity prices to increase even more which will bring a “tsunami of inflation” and will further overburden the poor masses. A majority of the people from lower and middle class will not be able to pay their electricity bills.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2011.