ISLAMABAD, June 12: A large number of trade unions and civil society organizations here on Sunday criticized the countrywide arrest of Pakistan Telecommunication Company workers, the takeover of vital PTCL installations by army and other law-enforcement agencies and the announcement of a new date for its privatization.

Speaking at a press conference at the camp office of Rawalpindi Press Club here, Asim Sajjad of the People’s Rights Movement, Shahid Zaheer of the Socialist Movement Pakistan, Azam Janjua of Trade Unions Rights Campaign and Akram Bunda of Pakistan Workers’ Confederation said the arrest of the leadership of PTCL Workers Action Committee showed the dictatorial tactics of the government.

They said only a week ago the secretaries of privatization and interior had signed an agreement with the committee’s leadership promising that the company’s privatization would be done after taking all the workers into confidence. However, they added, now the government was using force against the workers to keep them silent on the issue.

Representatives of the Communist Mazdoor Kissan Party, Labour Party Pakistan, National Workers Party, Rawalpindi/Islamabad Union of Journalists, High Court Bar Association, Rawalpindi; All-Pakistan Alliance of Katchi Abadis, Anjuman Mazarain Punjab, Pakistan Fisher Folk Forum and Awam Dost Mahaz were also present.

They said the anti-privatization movement would not be intimidated into a retreat. The speakers said, “they fully support the action committee’s plan to jam the country’s telecommunication system on June 15 because this was the only language that the state understood.”

They said by conditioning the privatization of the PTCL to a package for the employees, the government was trying to deceive the workers.

PPP: Meanwhile, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) also criticized the government’s plan to privatize the PTCL at gunpoint.

President Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign and MNA (PPP) Chaudhry Manzoor held a press conference at the Parliament Lodges and condemned raids conducted by the law-enforcement agencies on the houses of PTCL workers in various parts of the country.

PPP MNAs Fauzia Wahab, Khalid Iqbal Memon, Qurban Ali Shah and Anwar Bhutto were also present on the occasion.

HRCP: Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) Chairperson Asma Jehangir warned the government against privatizing the PTCL at the cost of its employees.