Yet again: Demos staged against planned privatisation

Union official says government forcing workers to resort to industrial action

LAHORE:

All Pakistan Hydroelectric Workers’ Union (CBA) activists on Wednesday staged a protest demonstration against the planned privatisation of electricity distribution companies at Charing Cross on The Mall.

“We will not only register our protest against privatisation but also take to task private contractors who try to enter our buildings,” Sheikhupura Circle CBA chairman Chaudhry Younas said. Haji Akram of the Okara Circle said politicians would not be able to survive on the salaries of those present at the protest for even one day. He said they would not allow friends and relatives of politicians to make hefty profits by employing the ruse of privatisation. Akram said no electricity supply office was functioning in Okara. He said the initiative had been taken to register their protest against the government’s privatisation policy.

CBA general secretary Khurshid Ahmed called on the government to introduce reforms at the companies instead of dividing them into 15 entities and handing over control to private individuals. He also asked the government to hold talks with the unions and employees. Ahmed rapped the government’s power generation policy saying it had failed to ensure the provision of electricity to the public despite the nation being a nuclear power. “If the Chinese can provide electricity to over one billion consumers using nuclear power what is stopping our government from emulating them?” he said.

Ahmed warned the government that workers had desisted from resorting to industrial action as the nation was mired in the war against terrorism. He said the government was compelling them to take action on these lines by not taking their demands seriously.

Those present at the demonstration also expressed solidarity with workers of other state-owned enterprises set to be privatised including the Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited, Pakistan Petroleum Limited, Mari Gas, Pak-Arab Refinery, Pakistan State Oil, Sui Southern Gas Company Limited, Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, Pakistan International Airlines, Roosevelt Hotel, New York, Pakistan Railways, Gujranwala Electric Power Company, Lahore Electric Supply Company, Islamabad Electric Supply Company, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company, Northern Electric Generation Company, Pakistan Steel Mills, National Power Construction Company and Pakistan National Shipping Corporation.

FESCO workers boycott work, lock out offices

Employees of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) on Wednesday locked out FESCO headquarters and protested against proposed privatisation of power distribution companies.

The workers boycotted work and observed a pen-down strike.

They also staged a sit-in in front of the FESCO headquarters at Canal Road and blocked it for traffic.

Speaking on the occasion, All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union Regional Chairman Rana Ghulam Jaffar said FESCO was the only distribution company making a profit. He said it had the least line losses. He said it ranked top in recovery and was financially sound.

He said FESCO assets, which had been assessed for privatisation, were worth a lot more than they would be sold off for. “The government is privatising power distribution companies under pressure from the IMF,” he said. “This is not in national interest. Privatising FESCO would only aggravate the situation,” he added.

Wapda Hydro Union general secretary Chaudhary Sarfraz Hundal said FESCO employees would not allow unilateral privatisation.

“We will protest privatisation at all costs,” he said. He said the government would not be allowed to seal the fate of thousands of workers without taking them on board.

Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union chairman Rana Nadeem said FESCO workers should lock out office and boycott duties till the government agreed to stop privatisation.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 7^th, 2015.