PESCO employees vow to resist all attempts to privatise WAPDA

Union chairman terms WAPDA a national asset and an institution for the common good.

PESHAWAR:

Employees of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) have asked the government to refrain from privatising the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda).

Hundreds of Pesco employees part of the Pakistan Wapda-Hydro Electric Central Labour Union gathered at Sher Shah Suri Road on Wednesday to express their concerns against privatisation. They claimed the government might be secretly preparing the ground work towards privatising Wapda.

The demonstrators held banners against such an endeavour and termed Wapda a vital national asset. The protesters were led by HECLU Chairman Gohar Taj along with the union’s information secretary Gohar Ali, among others.

“Any proposed privatisation of Wapda will not be acceptable,” Taj said, adding Wapda along with Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways are national assets and institutions for the common good. “Any move to privatise them will be resisted.”

Taj argued Wapda’s employees should be facilitated instead of being put under pressure. “Our employees perform duties in all kinds of situations, including unsafe regions, but do not get paid enough. Their salaries do not correspond with inflation,” he claimed.



HECLU’s information secretary questioned the government’s intentions. “If the government is unable to efficiently manage an institution, how can it expect more efficiency in the private sector?”

Referring to an incident in 1999, Ali claimed an attempt was made to privatise Pesco by issuing a tender for a power feeder in Bannu. “It was cancelled after strong resistance by the employees and any such attempt will be resisted in the future.”

He embarked on defending Pesco’s performance. “The government might be contemplating privatisation due to the losses and failure in recovering outstanding dues, but our employees took all necessary risks in the campaign against power theft and to control line losses despite security concerns,” he argued.

He claimed the announcement of setting up police stations across Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to specifically assist Pesco has not yet materialised.

“There is also a need of bringing labour laws up to par with the International Labor Organization conventions,” Gohar Taj added.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2013.