LAHORE, July 18: The PTCL union action committee has renewed its pledge not to allow the UAE company to take over the management which is scheduled for Aug 18. “We will launch a country-wide strike in the first week of August and subsequently jam the communication system,” the committee members told Dawn here on Monday. Workers action committee office-bearers Ghulam Sabir Butt, Lala M.Hanif, Shahid Ayub, Abdul Qayyum and Haji Khan Bhatti said that they had launched a mass contact campaign and after July 31 they would go on strike.

They said the government had betrayed the PTCL workers as there had been no written assurance about their jobs as well as increase in their salaries.

They claimed that the UAE company had decided retrenchment of 32,000 employees after a year. Describing it a conspiracy against the country, they said Indians were also part of the new company that meant the telecommunication system would not be in safe hands. They said the defence ministry did not clear the deal.

The office-bearers also alleged that some elements in the government and PTCL had taken kickbacks worth Rs48 billion. They also demanded to place the names of PTCL officers, including its president Junaid Khan, on ECL.

They said they were planning to move the court against the privatization of their organization and warned if the government arrested the action committee leadership, the workers would take to streets.

They alleged that the PTCL had created an advertisement fund with Rs700 million and its logo would be changed. They said the government’s deal with one of the former action committee’s members Rana Tahir was meaningless.

Before the privatization of the PTCL, the action committee had launched a campaign against it for 42 days but to no avail.

At present, rangers and police are present on the premises of its main and sub-offices throughout the country. — Zulqernain Tahir