June 3, 2005	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 25, 1426

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ISLAMABAD, June 2: A meeting held between the capital administration and the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) employees action committee on Thursday failed to reach any understanding. “We were asked by Inspector General Police Islamabad Talat Mehmood and Chief Commissioner Khalid Pervez to end the strike and apprise them about the demands, which we did. But were are still waiting for their reply,” Haji Khan Bhatti, a member of the action committee, told Dawn after the meeting.

Mr Bhatti appreciated the opposition for staging a token walkout at the National Assembly against the government’s policy on PTCL’s privatization.

Mr Bhatti also claimed that the meeting of a high-powered committee comprising secretaries of IT and telecom, Privatization Commission and the interior ministry, ended in deadlock late Wednesday night as the protesting employees did not budge an inch from their demand to stop the company’s privatization.

The action committee would breakdown entire telecom system of the country if the government failed to reverse its policy on PTCL privatization by Monday next, Mr Bhatti warned.

Meanwhile, Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal MNAs visited the PTCL headquarters to extend support to the company workers whose strike entered 10th day on Thursday.

MNAs Liaquat Baloch and Mian Aslam said privatization of the PTCL would severely undermine national interest, and that the religious parties alliance would resist the move.

Raja Asghar Qayyum, president, Municipal Labour Union Rawalpindi, also assured complete support to the protesting PTCL workers.

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