January 27, 2006	Friday	Zilhaj 26, 1426

KARACHI, Jan 26: The National Labour Federation (NLF) on Thursday strongly condemned the privatization of the operation department of the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and termed it a compromise with the national interests.

NLF Karachi Zone President Rafique Ahmed alleged that profitable and sensitive national institutions were being sold on the behest of the IMF and the World Bank.

He accused the government of rendering hundreds of thousands of workers jobless, besides putting the national sovereignty and economy on the stake.

Mr Ahmed said that after selling vital national institutions like the KESC and PTCL, the government was now bent on selling the KPT and the Pakistan Steel Mills.

He said that this wholesale privatization policy would open the floodgates of poverty, joblessness and price hike in the country.

Mr Ahmed assured the protesting KPT workers that the NLF was fully backing them. He demanded of the government not to privatize the operation department of the KPT in the wider interest of the nation.—PPI