LAHORE: The workers of electricity companies staged protest rallies across the country under the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union on Wednesday to demand provision of safety for workers, and to stop privatisation.

In Lahore, a rally was held outside the press club, where they urged the prime minister to save electricity workers from fatal and non-fatal accidents.

Union General Secretary Khurshid Ahmad along with other office bearers, including Haji Younas, Osama Tariq, Haji Liaquat, Malik Zahid, Shahbaz Thakar, Mehar Jamil, Rana Shafique, Farman Ali Bhatti and others addressed the gathering.

They said that no recruitment had been carried out for the last eight years, which was the reason behind the increasing accidents. They said four linemen lost their lives in just the last month while working at the Kotli Loharaan subdivision.

They demanded the government review the privatisation of profitable electricity companies and said that independent power producers (IPPs) were charging Rs50 per unit, whereas, power companies had been providing electricity at Rs5.5 per unit.

They said the stark difference showed the failure of the privatisation policy.

They also demanded that the workers at Discos, Wapda, media, banks and industries working on temporary, contingent, contract and daily wages basis should be regularised.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2025