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| April 28, 2003 | Monday | Safar 25, 1424 |
Govt accused of planning large-scale retrenchment
ISLAMABAD, April 27: The government has, at the behest of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, planned to sack more than 70,000 employees from different institutions which will enhance poverty and unemployment in the country.
This was stated by Zahoor Ahmed Khan, leader of the People’s Rights Movement and secretary-general of the National Institute of Health Workers’ Welfare Association, at a press conference here on Sunday.
Manzoor Ahmad Soomro, President Shahdadkot Textile Mills Labour Union, was also present.
Mr Khan said the organizations where retrenchment had been planned included the Pakistan Railways, Oil and Gas Development Corporation, Wapda, Karachi Electricity Supply Company and the Pakistan State Oil, etc.
He said on the one hand poverty and unemployment rates were rising while on the other the government was bent on sacking more workers.
He condemned the privatization of Shahdadkot Textile Mills and the three-year-old shortsizing of almost 1,000 workers of the organization. Approximately, 8,000 people have been affected by the step, 14 people have died and many more faced mental disorder, he alleged.
He said the present state of affairs existed despite the continuing rhetoric from the finance managers that the economy was on the right track.
He said that the Shahdadkot Textile Mills had been non- operational for almost three years and almost 1,000 families of the workers had been without any source of income.
The mill has been listed for liquidation and almost 800 workers have not even been offered golden handshake schemes as had been agreed upon between the All-Pakistan State Enterprises Workers’ Action Committee and the government in 1991, he added.
It is sad to note that a mill worth more than Rs1.25 billion is being supposedly put up for an amount slightly exceeding Rs80 million even though the 184 acres of land on which the mill is built is worth much more than the amount, said Mr Soomro.
He alleged that rangers, police personnel and some local people had occupied many of the buildings of the mill.
In Aug 2000, he claimed, Gen Pervez Musharraf had visited Larkana and met a number of employees of the mill, including representatives of the CBA union, and promised to halt the liquidation of the mill, adding that appropriate compensation packages would be announced for the workers.
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