WAPDA workers: Thousands come together at anti-privatisation demo

HRCP secretary general IA Rehman expresses solidarity with workers.

LAHORE:

Thousands of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) workers came together at the Press Club on Wednesday to stage a protest demonstration against the proposed privatisation of electricity distribution companies.

The demonstrators raised slogans against the government and marched towards the Chief Minister’s House on The Mall. All-Pakistan Wapda Hydroelectric Workers’ Union (CBA) general secretary Khurshid Ahmed said the privatisation of electricity distribution companies in Karachi and Multan had failed. He said both entities were indebted to the government. Ahmed said the privatisation of electricity distribution companies would result in interprovincial conflicts over water-sharing. He said the government should strive to bring back the $200 million stashed abroad by feudal lords and politicians instead of privatising state-owned enterprises to clear debt.



Ahmed called on the government to focus on eliminating the energy shortfall, giving an example of the State Grid Corporation of China. He said the company had been providing over one billion consumers with electricity without any power cuts. Ahmed said the government had failed to provide citizens with uninterrupted power despite the nation having acquired a nuclear weapons capability.

He said the unbundling of Wapda into 15 companies and handing over their control to individuals with no stake in them had resulted in mismanagement. Ahmed called on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to hold talks with workers in accordance with International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions. He said the issue should also be debated in the parliament. Human Rights Commission of Pakistan secretary general IA Rehman expressed solidarity with the workers. He said that he supported their struggle. Rehman exhorted government representatives to hold talks with the workers as they were major stakeholders in the privatisation process.

Other speakers at the demonstration said the government wanted to sell electricity distribution companies to its supporters for cheap. They urged the government to eradicate corruption in the companies and increase their productivity instead of privatising them. The speakers said the provision of power was a basic responsibility of the government. They said the government should take the onus for it rather than relinquishing it to private entities.  A resolution for observing May 1 as a day of protest against privatisation was also passed on the occasion. Similar demonstrations were staged in Peshawar, Mardan, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Sukkur, Larkana, Hyderabad and Quetta among other cities across the nation.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 16^th, 2015.