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KARACHI, June 17: A large number of people staged a protest rally outside Karachi Press Club against the privatization of the Pakistan Telecommunications Corporation Limited on Friday.
The protesters demanded that the privatization process should be stopped forthwith and that the nation’s precious and sensitive asset must not be given to any private party, particularly multinational companies.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Telecommunication Employees Union (CBA) rejected the agreement between some so-called leaders of the workers and the management alleging that over 16,000 employees, who had been regularized after 1996, would become contract employees under the agreement.
PTCL employees’ union chief Ziauddin and general secretary Rana Tahir said that the government had given job guarantee for just two years after the privatization, after which the private party would be at liberty to sack as many workers as it wanted, which was not acceptable.
They demanded that union leaders Yunus Chandio, Sarfaraz Ahmad, Mian Zahid and all others who have been arrested should be released unconditionally and immediately.
BLACK DAY: The PTCL Lions Staff Union has announced that it would observe black day on Saturday when the government plans to hold the bidding for the PTCL.
It also condemned the role of the so-called union leaders who have termed the management’s package for the workers as a gift for employees.
The union said that it would burn the effigies of those leaders when they return to the city from Islamabad for stabbing 65,000 workers, and alleged that those leaders had taken a bribe of Rs20 million for selling off the interests of the workers.
It was alleged that these so-called labour leaders had entered into an agreement with the management under which over 20,000 workers would be sacked in the next few months.
