ISLAMABAD: PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah has extended an olive branch to the protesting employees, and assured them that the Utility Stores Corporation (USC) will not be abolished.

“We have been assured by Rana Sahib that neither any employee will be laid off nor the USC will be closed,” Utility Stores CBA Union General Secretary Raja Miskeen told Dawn.

The delegation of all three unions of the USC held a meeting with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah late Wednesday evening.

The employees have been protesting at D-Chowk since August 26, after the federal cabinet last week announced its intention to shut down the USC. The ICT administration closed the area with containers to prevent the protesting employees from marching towards the Red Zone.

The protest continued despite Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer Hussain’s statement, in which he stated that the USC was not slated for closure, but rather for restructuring.

USC is a state-owned enterprise that was founded in 1971 and operates 4,000 stores nationwide, aiming to provide essential commodities to the public at subsidised rates. It is included in the list of ministries and departments that the government intends to close down.

Earlier in the day, a delegation of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) including Nafisa Shah, Agha Rafiullah, Mir Aijaz Jhakrani and the head of the Peoples Labour Bureau Chaudhry Manzoor visited the protest camp and assured the employees of their party’s support.

The PPP leaders added that the USC carried a legacy of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and they would raise this issue in the parliament as well as with the government.

A delegation of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) led by Sheikh Waqas Akram and Khawaja Sheeraz also visited the camp and condemned the decision of the government.

Meanwhile, employees of the Pakistan Public Works Department (Pak-PWD) too protested against the decision of the government to wind up the infrastructure development and maintenance body.

The PWD employees blocked the Srinagar Highway for several hours against the proposed abolishment of the Pak-PWD. The federal cabinet approved to abolish Pak-PWD on July 10.

Under the rightsising plan of the government, several departments of various ministries were abolished and in a recent directive, the Ministry of IT and Telecom has been directed to prepare the plan to abolish the National IT Board (NITB).

The NITB is responsible for managing the digital services of government offices and departments including the implementation of the e-office programme.

Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2024