LAHORE: Power workers protested on Tuesday all over the country under the aegis of the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union to mourn the death of 10 linemen during performance of their duty and protested against unsafe working conditions.

These linemen were killed in the last 10 days in the various parts of the country, and of them, Kashif Khan (Samanabad sub-division), Riasat Khan (Mustafa Town sub-division), Zafar Khan (Kot Khwaja sub-division, Baghbanpura division) and Muhammad Shafiq (Walton sub-division) died in Lahore.

The workers held protest rallies in Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Gujranwala, Multan, Sukkur, Hyderabad, Faisalabad, Quetta and other cities.

In Lahore, hundreds of workers held a rally in front of the press club in support of their demands.

On this occasion, Khurshid Ahmad demanded the prime minister order recruitment of electricity staff.

He said the workers would be compelled to protest in case 50pc shortage of staff was not met at the earliest. He called upon the workers to refuse to perform their duties without safety measures at workplace.

The rally was also addressed by Rana Shakoor, Haji Younas, Naveed Ashiq Dogar, Muzaffar Mateen, Osama Tariq, Malik Zahoor, Liaqat Ali and Nosher Khan.

In a resolution, the power workers urged the prime minister to stop the proposed privatisation of profitable distribution companies.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2021