KARACHI, June 7: Panic gripped the top management of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited on Tuesday as they held meetings with the police and army in view of what insiders described as an imminent breakdown of negotiations. Senior officials of the PTCL, requesting anonymity, told Dawn that they spent the whole day briefing the police and army about what prompt measures would be expected of them if the negotiations between workers and the Privatization Commission broke down on Tuesday.

Recently the Privatization Commission postponed the sale of a 26 per cent management stake in the PTCL after employees concerned about job losses went on strike, but it said the auction would still go ahead before the end of this month.

The sale had been due to take place on June 10.

Around 8,000 of the PTCL’s 65,000 workers went on strike last month, worried the sale would bring job losses. The partial strike slowed repair and maintenance of some of PTCL’s more than five million fixed lines.

“I personally don’t think the police and army could do a lot in the event of a strike by workers. It became evident last time that striking workers could adversely affect the user-end services of the PTCL. But we were under orders to brief the army and police about the PTCL infrastructure so that they could take appropriate action the moment workers announce their decision to again go on strike,” said a top-ranking official of the PTCL.

A union leader told Dawn from Islamabad that the Privatization Commission wanted workers to sign a document saying that since their 28 demands had been accepted, they would not object to the PTCL sell-off.

“Actually the management has accepted our demands. But the issue of privatization is beyond their jurisdiction. These days, negotiations are being held with the Privatization Commission. I seriously doubt workers would ever sign a document saying they would not object to the privatization of the PTCL,” he said.