Under IMF- programme: PPP demands end to privatisation

Raza Rabbani, OGDCL workers stage token sit-ins

HYDERABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party on Sunday asked the federal government to scrap the International Monetary Fund-stipulated privatisation of national corporations, as it staged a token sit-in along with the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited workers outside the press club

"The PPP stands with the labourers. We have opposed and will continue to oppose the privatisation process," said Senator Raza Rabbani while addressing the protesting workers of OGDCL.

Hundreds of the OGDCL and the PPP's labour wing workers participated in the sit-in. The labours expressed gratitude to the PPP leaders for standing them in good stead and vowed to continue the struggle unless the privatisation process is shelved and the privatised corporations are nationalized again.

The government on Saturday announced that it was pulling back from the planned privatisation. It had offered 311 million shares at the rate of Rs216 per share; however, it received the offer for buying of only 162 million shares during the three-day bidding process.

According to Senator Saeed Ghani, the government has put 69 companies on the privatisation list. He said only 11 of them are reporting financial losses while the rest are profit-making companies.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 10^th, 2014.