ISLAMABAD, June 19: Seven leaders of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) are still detained by law-enforcement agencies, as the workers here continued their anti-privatization strike on Sunday.

PTCL Workers Union Action Committee spokesman Azad Qadri told Dawn that seven members of the action committee — Lala Hanif, Latif Qureshi, Malik Maqbool, Qazi Rashid, Zafar Zaidi, Shamim and Syed Sirajul Hassan — were in government’s custody.

When contacted on his cellular phone, Latif Qureshi said that everything would be clear by Monday. He said that he could tell only on Monday whether the workers should continue their countrywide strike after Saturday’s bidding for 26 per cent shares of the PTCL.

He said his other colleagues were in Islamabad and holding talks with the government.

However, he refused to disclose the names and designations of government officials with whom the union leaders were holding talks.

The action committee spokesman said the workers were on strike and more than 270,000 telephone connections had been suffering from various faults.

He said no response was coming from the cellular phone of Malik Maqbool Hussain and he feared that Mr Hussain and Latif Qureshi were not at the same place.

He said he had contacted Latif Qureshi twice on Sunday but could not find Mr Hussain.