ISLAMABAD, May 26: Hundreds of workers continued their occupation of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) headquarters for the second consecutive day here on Thursday, threatening to jam the telecom and mobile phone systems of the country if the government did not stop the privatization process of the company.

Subscribers in a number of areas in the federal capital are already facing breakdown of telecommunication services since Wednesday evening with union leaders threatening to extend it to Rawalpindi and ultimately to the whole country.

However, Mohammad Rashid Khan, a member of the PTCL Unions Action Committee, told Dawn that the country could see a breakdown of telecommunication and mobile phone systems anytime because the administration seemed reluctant to change its mind on the privatization issue.

A meeting of the Union Action Committee with Federal Minister for Information Technology Awais Leghari and the PTCL management failed to resolve the issue on Thursday afternoon, he said.

However, Mr Leghari told journalists that they were trying to redress the genuine demands of the workers but would never withdraw the decision to privatize the company. He said the PTCL would be privatized on June 10 and everything was in control.

The union leaders said there would be no comprise on the privatization issue though they could discuss other problems with the management. Backed by protesters, the union leaders did not allow some officials of the management to enter the headquarters in the morning.

Staff Reporter Adds: The Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) has condemned the government’s plan to privatize the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL). “The privatization programme of this government is a conspiracy against the country and its people and a criminal method to benefit the cronies of the administration by selling to them at throwaway prices the rapidly expanding sectors along with their infrastructures,” Central Information Secretary of the party Taj Haider said in a statement here on Thursday.