HYDERABAD: Political parties, labour organisations and journalists on Wednes­day continued to condemn the violence leading to the death of two protesters and injuries to several others during a demonstration by PIA employees in Karachi a day earlier.

Speaking to the participants in a demonstration held outside the local press club, National Labour Federation (NLF) president Rana Mahmood Ali Khan, Shakil Ahmed Shaikh, Anis Ahmed, Mohammad Sajjan Panhwar, Abdul Qayyum Bhatti and other labour leaders vowed to resist the government’s privatisation policy until it was shelved.

They demanded registration of FIRs against Federal Information Minister Pervez Rasheed and Pakistan Mus­lim League-Nawaz Sena­tor Mushahidullah Khan in connection with the Tuesday violence and use of force against protesters.They also condemned the government’s act of invoking the Essential Services Act, 1952 to deal with the agitating PIA employees.

Rana Mahmood alleged that police and Rangers personnel had been given a free hand to deal with the agitation and they “resorted to straight firing on the protesting workers”.

He said the NLF fully supported PIA employees’ stance on the privatisation of PIA. He said his organisation opposed privatisation of any national institution.

All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union (CBA) president Abdul Latif Nizamani chaired an emergency meeting of the organisation in the Labour Hall on Wednesday to discuss the situation arising out of the violence during PIA workers demonstration.

The meeting expressed solidarity with the agitating workers. It said the government could not suppress workers’ voice through coercive measures. It noted that PIA workers’ struggle and the bloodshed during their agitation had injected new vigour into the labour movement.

It observed that government’s action proved that it is anti-workers. It said that through this act rulers have proved that they are product of dictatorship.

It said that government wants to sell national enterprises at throw prices and want to obtain loans from World Bank and IMF to make country bankrupt. It said that Wapda workers are with PIA employees in their struggle.

Awami Jamhoori Party (AJP) termed the killing of protesters “act of terrorism on the part of the government”.

AJP president Abrar Kazi and other office-bearers in their joint statement issued on Wednesday warned the government that such actions could lead to serious consequences. They demanded setting up of a judicial commission to ascertain why the government was bent upon selling the PIA and also find out facts about the Tuesday incident.

The Hyderabad Union of Journalists held a demonstration outside the local press club to condemn the use of force against protesting workers that also resulted in injuries to six media workers.

HUJ president Hamid Shaikh and general secretary Satram Maheshwari, speaking to the participants demanded a judicial inquiry into the whole affair and compensation to be paid to the injured media workers. They said in such cases, FIRs should be registered against the chief secretary and home secretary.

SUKKUR: Workers belon­g­ing to the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco) took part in a rally organised by the Wapda CBA outside the utility’s Sukkur sub-division-I offices on Wednesday to express solidarity with PIA workers.

They offered Ghaibana Namaz-i-Janaza for the firing victims and staged a sit-in against the government’s plan to privatise state institutions.

CBA regional chairman Nisar Ahmed Shaikh and other labour leaders spoke to the participants and condemned the killings and urged to government not to sell away national assets.

Pakistan Railway workers led by Qazi Niamatullah and others also took out a rally from the PR divisional superintendent’s office and converged on the local press club, where they raised slogans against the government, its privatisation policy and the use of force against agitating PIA workers.

PR workers led by the Prem Union took out a rally in Jacobabad to condemn the Tuesday incident. They held a demonstration outside the local press club where their leaders strongly criticised the “anti-workers” policies pursued by the PML-N government. They claimed that privatisation of most essential national assets was aimed at covering up the government’s failure in strengthening the national economy.

Workers of the national flag carrier led by Zohaib Shah and other union leaders held a demonstration at Minara Road causing blockage of a thoroughfare connecting Sukkur with Rohri and Panno Aqil.

Speaking to the participants, the leaders demanded action against those responsible for the casualties at the Karachi rally of their colleagues.

Workers of the Qadirpur Gas Fields led by their CBA leaders took out a rally in Ghotki to express solidarity with PIA employees in their struggle. Activists of various political parties and social welfare organisations also joined in the rally which ended outside the local press club.

LARKANA: Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) leader Maulana Rashid Meh­mood Soomro condemned the “brutal action” against agitating PIA workers in Karachi and urged the government to hold dialogue with them to settle the issue peacefully.

In a press statement issu­ed on Wednesday, Mau­lana Soomro termed suppression of the rally by a democratic dispensation ‘unde­mo­cratic and unfair’.

The JUI-F leader observed that it was a democratic right of any entity to to hold a protest rally to draw world’s attention to its grievances.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016