KARACHI, Aug 6: Speakers at a demonstration on Friday condemning the proposed privatization of the Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation demanded that the exercise be stopped.

They were speaking at a protest demonstration, organized by the KESC's People's Workers Union at the Press Club. Former Sindh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah, Taj Haider, Rafiq Engineer (MPA), Nafeesa Raja (MNA), Nasreen Chandio (MPA), Karamat Ali, Habibuddin Junaidi, Fareed Awan, Lateef Mughal, Shaikh Majeed, Mirza Maqsood, Saeed Khan, Manzoor Badayuni, and others also spoke on the occasion.

They said that the KESC was being privatized on the pretext that it was facing losses, but they argued that the losses were being faced owing to the fact that the utility was not being run by professional management.

The union leaders alleged that the KESC had been destroyed financially and administratively by non-professional and corrupt management, and the livelihood of thousands of employees had been put at stake in the name of restructuring and right-sizing.

They demanded that the army officials, who they alleged did not know how to run a public utility, be sent back to their original job, and professional management be appointed to run the KESC efficiently.

They said that the utility was being privatized on the directives of the international financial institutions, and criticized the government for selling an important and sensitive national asset to foreigners, who would transfer their profits abroad. They urged the workers to forge unity among themselves.