HYDERABAD: Workers of All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union took out rallies and held demonstrations in several Sindh towns on Wednesday to protest against federal government’s plans to privatise 10 power distribution companies (Discos) and four thermal power plants.

They warned that it would be a grave blunder if the power plants were handed over to Sindh government because almost all the organisations had met their nemesis after they were handed over to the provincial government.

In Hyderabad, the CBA’s president Abdul Latif Nizamani announced before participants in a rally outside local press club that the union would stage a ‘long march’ in Islamabad on Feb 17 and asked workers to reach the federal capital by train.

He feared the government’s assets would be sold at throwaway price under the privatisation plan and then the new owners would immediately set about downsizing workers and depriving them of their legitimate rights.

He said that after the federal government privatised K-Electric, the new management sacked a large number of workers and created power crisis in the metropolis, dealing a serious blow to economy in the process. But the government refused to learn any lesson from this experiment as was evident from its privatisation policy, he said.

He reminded Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf of its pre-election promises that it would never privatise national enterprises but now the same party was planning privatisation of not one but scores of national entities like Wapda, PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills.

LARKANA: The CBA members took out a rally and demonstrated outside the Wapda circle office after boycotting work.

Nisar Ahmed Shaikh, chairman of the union’s Larkana chapter who led the rally, said that they rejected the government’s privatisation plan as they believed it would render thousands jobless.

He and other speakers also criticised the government for registering cases against the protesting CBA workers.

MIRPURKHAS: The CBA workers took out a rally and held a demonstration outside local press club where their leaders condemned the federal government’s privatisation plan and demanded its immediate withdrawal.

They warned that they would shut down power supply in the country and surround National Assembly if the government did not withdraw its decision.

Hesco employees held similar protests in Digri, Jhuddo and Naukot.

BADIN: The CBA took out a rally and demonstrated at main gate of Wapda office in Matli town against the centre’s privatisation plans.

The CBA leaders said that the federal government must look at the fate of the units after they had been privatised before taking the decision to sell Discos.

They warned that it would be a grave blunder if the power units were handed over to the Sindh government as most of the organisations given to the provincial government had been systematically destroyed over the years.

The fate of the power plants would not be different and in the end people would not get even the poor quality of service they were getting now, they said.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2021