HYDERABAD, Nov 16: Sindh Taraqqi Pasand Party chairman Dr Qadir Magsi demanded on Sunday abolition of the privatisation ministry to stop sale of Sindh’s as well as the country’s assets.
He said in his address during a sit-in on the Miran Mohammad Shah road that the government was hoodwinking people by putting on hold privatisation of the gas field. “The privatisation ministry should be wound up once and for all so that no asset or institute can be privatised in future,” he said.
Leaders of OGDC workers union and Jamaat-i-Islami also made speeches at the sit-in, which was later joined by employees of the Oil and Gas Development Company.
The president of the Mazdoor Ittehad Union Chaudhry Mohammad Akram severely criticised the privatisation minister and asked him to resign if he gave any value to the wishes of the people who voted him to power from Tando Mohammad Khan.
He said that 20,000 workers were permanent employees in the OGDC and of them 8,000 were from Sindh and 4,000 of them were voters of the privatisation minister.
He said that he had met almost every PPP MNA and senator as well as those belonging to other parties to seek their support and they were all unanimous in their view that the gas field should not be privatised.
He called into question the minister’s statement that a consensus decision would be taken on the field’s future despite the fact that 183 MNAs and 53 senators had voiced opposition to its privatisation. “Which parliament is he talking about for evolving consensus?” he asked.
JI leader Asadullah Bhutto condemned government’s announcement of withholding the field’s privatisation and demanded that it be abandoned once and for all.
Activists of STP had organised a rally, which started from the Shahbaz Building roundabout and later ended in a sit-in on the road.
JI PROTESTS: The Jamaat-i-Islami had also organised protests in different parts of the province against privatisation of the Qadirpur gas field.
In Hyderabad, JI leaders Asadullah Bhutto, Abdul Waheed Qureshi and president of National Labour Federation (NLF) Rana Mehmood Ali Khan said in their addresses to a rally that the rulers wanted to sell national assets to finance their orgies.
They said that the nation had been mortgaged to the US and IMF. Privatisation of Steel Mills and other profit-earning entities would be disastrous and tantamount to treachery, they added.
In Shikarpur, JI leaders said at a demonstration at Lakhi-Gate Tower Chowk that the government was continuing with the policies of Pervez Musharraf.
They threatened that the people of Sindh would take to the streets if the decision on privatisation of the gas field was not withdrawn.
In Jacobabad, JI workers brought out a rally, which started from the JI office and terminated at the press club after marching on different roads of the city.
They said that the gas field was the property of Sindh and the government would not be allowed to privatise it.
In Mirpurkhas, JI activists said that on the one hand people were hit hard by price hike and on the other the government was selling national assets at throwaway prices, which would deprive the country of resources to feed its teeming millions.