Unhappy Wapda and Sepco employees take to the streets in protest

Protestors demanded that the govt should restore Wapda to its former glory.


Our Correspondent January 20, 2012

Plagued by job insecurity, employees of the Sukkur Electric Power Company refused to work, locked up their offices and staged a protest at the clock tower on Thursday.

With unconditional support from the Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union, the employees were led by Zahid Hussain Shah and Badarul Islam. The protestors held placards and marched through the city. They criticised the government and said that it wanted to ruin national institutions. They claimed that the government was trying to privatise the Water and Power Development Authority.

The protestors said that the Sindh High Court bench in Sukkur has given a stay order against the dissolution of the Pakistan Electric Power Company (Pepco). They demanded the government restore Wapda to its former glory and hand it over to competent engineers in order to end the power crisis in the country.

Padlocked and protesting

Wapda and sister organisation employees held protests all over the province against the privatisation of power distribution companies. The employees did not go to work, padlocked their offices and held rallies in Hyderabad, Badin, Tando Muhammad Khan, Mirpurkhas, Umerkot and Sanghar.

At a rally in Hyderabad, the president of the Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Labour Union, Abdul Latif Nizamani, said that the international financial institutions were pushing the government towards privatisation. “We don’t trust the government,” he said while referring to Federal Minister of Water and Power Syed Navid Qamar’s statements.

According to Nizamani, the union has 140,000 members and has frequently held protests since October 30, 2011 when the federal government dissolved Pepco. He added that the government had recently appointed a new secretary board of directors in Islamabad Electric Supply Company (IESCO) and was offering him a salary package of Rs450,000. He explained that the union was against such appointments as it messed with the company’s employee hierarchy. Iqbal Qaimkhani, the union’s provincial general secretary, said that jobs should be regularised. Wapda employees in Kunri also carried out a protest. They were led by Tahir Ali Arain.

With additional information from PPI

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2012.

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