United front: FESCO workers protest privatisation

FAISALABAD:

Scores of employees of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) staged a protest demonstration on Friday against proposed privatisation of the company.

The protesters locked out the Fesco Headquarters and staged a sit-in in front of the building. They also blocked Canal Road for traffic, suspending traffic for several hours.

Addressing the protesters, Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union General Secretary Chaudhary Sarfraz Ahmad Hundal said the government was planning to privatise the company under IMF conditions. He said if the company was privatised, thousands of workers would be laid off. “Fesco workers have had no say in this,” he said. He said the government had ignored their protests in this regard. “We shall not allow privatisation of the Fesco.”

He said concerns of Fesco workers should be heard. He said if the government did not address their concerns, they would stage a demonstration in the capital.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2015.