July 16, 2008	Wednesday	Rajab 12, 1429

LARKANA, July 15: Seven workers of Pakistan Telecommu-nication Company suffered injuries in Larkana when police used batons and tear gas to stop them from meeting Chief Justice of Pakistan as their fellow workers held rallies and processions across Sindh on Tuesday to protest the company’s plans to change regular employees’ cadre.

The workers see the recently-announced Unified Pay Scale (UPS), which is supposed to replace the Basic Pay Scale (BPS), as a threat to job security in the wake of privatisation of the company.

The workers’ procession led by central leader of the union Zulfikar Sangi was going to submit a representation to the Chief Justice of Pakistan when police tried to stop them and used batons and lobbed tear gas shells to disperse the procession.

Seven protesters Hussain Bakhsh Bhutto, Rustam Kalhoro, Ameer Bakhsh Bhutto, Allahdino Narejo, Abdul Rasheed Memon, Jamil Ahmed Shaikh and Hadi Bakhsh were injured and admitted to Chandka Medical College Hospital.

Zulfikar Sangi told Dawn that that the police unnecessarily baton charged their peaceful procession.

The DIG of police visited the CMCH and inquired about the health of the injured. He assured them of taking action against the ASP of City and DSP who had ordered baton charge of the procession.

Later, Zulfikar Sangi accompanied by other union leaders called on the Chief Justice at Circuit House, complained to him about police excesses and submitted a representation about the new system being enforced by the PTCL management.

The chief justice assured the union leader that he would summon the president of the company to appear in court and in this context.

In Hyderabad, PTCL workers brought out a big rally and announced they would observe two-hour tool down strike starting from Wednesday.

Shouting slogans against the company management, former chairman of Privatisation Commi-ssion Hafeez Sheikh and former federal minister for communication Owais Leghari, the protesters vowed to resist the company decision. They burnt consent offer letters given to them by local regional general managers (RGMs) and staged a demonstration outside the press club.

CBA leaders described the UPS as their economic murder and called for an inquiry into the privatisation deal executed by Owais Leghari and Hafeez Sheikh, which enabled new PTCL management to purchase the company’s 26 per cent shares and thereby own the company’s property worth billions of rupees spread across the country.

They said that the management seemed to be reneging on its promises that no regular employee would be retrenched and criticised it for having them believe that their salaries would be raised in accordance with raise in other government employees’ pay.

They said that PTCL management wanted to get rid of its workers who had rejected outright the UPS because they, being regular employees, had not even opted for voluntarily separation scheme. CBA leaders believed that the UPS was an attempt to enable the company to bring regular employees under PTCL Act 1996 and be able to sack them whenever it liked.

In Nawabshah, the PTCL employees, carrying placards and raising slogans against company management, took out a rally and staged a demonstration outside the press club.

The leaders Bashir Ahmed Daudpota, Ghulam Hyder Soomro and Noorullah Shah condemned the UPS and demanded that the government should take notice of injustices with workers and direct the company management to withdraw the new pay scale.

PTCL employees held a rally in Naushahro Feroze and Moro against privatisation and new pay scale. They were led by central president of PTCL Employees Union Haji Khan Bhatti and Mohammad Khan Korai.