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| June 14, 2005 | Tuesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 6, 1426 |
Strike will continue, say PTCL union leaders
LARKANA, June 13: The PTCL Employees Union has rejected the government’s package and announced to continue its strike till the acceptance of employees’ demands. Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, union chairman Zulfikar Ali Sangi termed the package an eyewash and condemned arrests of hundres of union leaders throughout the country. He said the package must be of at least Rs120 million.
He observed that privatization of the PTCL at a throwaway price would be a national loss and added that employees were determined to resist the move.
Showing the balance sheet of PTCL accounts for 2004, he said the income of the organization was Rs74 billion and only Rs10 billion were given to workers from grade 1 to 15 as salaries. The overall profit of the PTCL was Rs29 billion. The organization paid Rs12 billion in taxes to the government, he added.
He claimed that the organization had assets to the tune of Rs67 trillion but bids had been prepared and okayed on the basis of 1992’s book values, ignoring the market value. He said 12 per cent shares of the PTCL were in the market and now 26 per cent shares were being offered.
Condemning a statement of Interior Minister Aftab Ahmad Sherpao about making more arrests, Mr Sangi said the protest would continue till the arrest of the last worker.
He threatened to jam the system even before the declared date if demands of the employees were not accepted.
He said 3,000 employees of the company working on contract should be regularized and workers should be assured that they would not be sacked in 10 years.
Answering a question, he said no government representatives had contacted him for re-initiating talks and claimed that 65,000 workers throughout the country were on strike.
KHAIRPUR: Employees of the PTCL continued their strike here on Monday. A meeting of the action committee of the employees union was held here on Monday, which was presided over by its chairman.
The meeting condemned police raids on houses of PTCL employees Niaz Abro, Nizam Solangi, Mohammad Aslam Chachar, Ghulam Sarwar and Imtiaz Soomro. It said police were harassing families of the employees.
SUKKUR: Law-enforcement agencies have taken over the control of exchanges and important installations of the PTCL in Sukkur.
Meanwhile, Tehsildar and assistant collector of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, Sukkur Zone, has announced that 44 telephone operators have been entrusted responsibilities as telephone recovery inspectors in the light of directives from the PTCL Headquarters Islamabad.
The campaign is being launched for the recovery of outstanding telephone arrears from defaulter consumers in five districts of the region including Sukkur, Ghotki, Khairpur, Naushahro Feroze and Nawabshah.
The telephone recovery inspectors have been delegated the powers to get implemented notices of revenue recovery courts and those who fails to comply the directives of the court would be arrested with the help of local police.
The telephone consumers and defaulters have been advised to ensure payment of their telephone dues and extend their cooperation with the recovery inspectors.
This was stated in official hand out issued on Monday.
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