Up in arms: Hundreds of FESCO employees stage sit-in outside headquarters

Anti-privatisation protest campaign continues for second day.

FAISALABAD: Hundreds of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company employees staged a sit-in in front of the Fesco headquarters on Tuesday against the planned privatisation of the company as their protest campaign entered its second day.  

The demonstrators held placards inscribed with anti-privatisation messages and raised slogans against the planned privatisation of the company. They also locked the Fesco headquarters and blocked the Canal Road for vehicular traffic.

All Pakistan WAPDA Hydroelectric Labour Union regional chairman Rana Ghulam Jaffar said the planned privatisation of the company had incensed employees. He said they would not accept the privatisation of the company at any cost. “The government wants to sell this profitable state-owned enterprise to please its cronies. Nothing will deter employees from rendering great sacrifices to save the company from being privatised,” Jaffar said. He said the government had caused anxiety among the company’s employees by announcing its planned privatisation.

Jaffar said the performance of the company and its employees was outstanding by all yardsticks. He said the fact that the Fesco was the only profitable electricity distribution company in the nation exemplified this. Jaffar said the company also had negligible line losses.

He said Fesco was a technically sound and financially stable company. Jaffar said the workers had been striving to ensure the provision of superior customer service to consumers. He said they had been taking timely action to redress consumer grievances.

The chairman said privatising the company despite these facts would amount to the “financial murder of employees.” He called on the government to shelve the planned privatisation of the company or be ready to face the music. Jaffar said the employees would be compelled to take direct action to secure their future if the government did not budge.

Regional secretary Sarfraz Hundal, headquarters chairman Muhammad Atif Maan, secretaries Munir Ahmad Sameem, Abdul Ghaffar, Nijabat Randhawa, Rana Tariq, Rana Aamir, Mian Shabbir, Ghulam Mustafa and other leaders also spoke on the occasion and vowed to continue their campaign till the company’s planned privatisation was called off.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 20^th, 2015.