ISLAMABAD, June 5: As a follow-up of the agreement reached between the government and the Pakistan Telecommunication Limited workers’ union leaders, a detailed meeting was held between the workers’ representatives and senior officials of the Privatization Commission on Saturday. According to a press release issued by the PID, the session was held in a cordial atmosphere and the Privatization Commission heard the viewpoint of the workers’ representatives and shared relevant documents with them.

The meeting was concluded on a positive note and it was agreed that further negotiations would again start on Monday.

It is expected that all remaining issues would be satisfactorily resolved in a couple of days after which the date of bidding for the PTCL would be announced.

The government, the press release said, remained firmly committed to privatization of the PTCL and would take all steps to ensure that the process was finalized timely and in a smooth manner.—APP

Staff reporter Sher Baz Khan adds: A new controversy surfaced between the Pakistan Telecommunication Limited workers’ unions and the government following the statement of federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Laghari that next date for privatization of the PTCL would be announced in a couple of days.

Leaders of the PTCL’s Workers Action Committee told Dawn here on Sunday that the minister was ‘not right’ when he said that the workers had agreed to the privatization of the company because the workers had gone on strike with one-point agenda of ‘No to privatization’.

Malik Maqbool Hussain, member of the action committee, said the workers would again observe strike if the government announced any new date for the privatization on its own because it would be in violation of the June 3 agreement between a high-powered government committee and the union leaders.

He said the government would have to convince the workers before announcing any new date for the privatization by holding talks.