JIP Workers moot oppose privatization

Lahore: Office bearers of major labour unions at an anti- Privatization conference under the aegis of the Jamaat e Islami, here on Wednesday, vowed to start a collective struggle to stop the privatization of major national institutions.

Prominent labour leaders besides hundreds of workers attending the conference said that the rulers were bent upon selling major national institutions including Railways, PIA, OGDC, Steel Mills, to their favourites on throw away prices under the dictates of the IMF and the World Bank, but the workers would resist that with full force.

Ameer, JIP, Senator Sirajul Haq, in his presidential address, said that the privatization of national institutions was not merely the economic murder of the workers but also against national interests.

A declaration adopted at the conference called upon the government to immediately stop the privatization of the national institutions as this would result in throwing thousands of workers out of job and the sale of vital national institutions and assets on throw away prices.

The conference was of the view that major institutions like WAPDA, Railways, OGDC, PTCL, PIA, Pakistan Steel, Karachi Port Trust, National Shipping Corporation could be made profitable through better management and by ending political interference.

The declaration said that none of the governments so far had undertaken a scientific study on privatization to ascertain which of the institutions should be privatized. On the other hand, a propaganda campaign in favour of privatization had been started so that the interests of a particular lobby could be protected through the sale of these institutions. This was causing great unrest among the mangers as well as workers-both technical and non- technical, who feared to be rendered jobless.

Those who addressed the conference included National Labour Federation president Rana Mehmud Ali, President, Peoples Labour Bureau, Ch. Manzur Ahmed, PREM Union leader Hafiz Salman Butt, besides presidents and secretaries of elected labour unions.

Sirajul Haq said that the rulers had always tried to prolong their rule by dividing the people into Left and Right. But now was it was time for politics on the basis of Right and Wrong. He said that different mafias through their slave managements, first fluted merit in employments and thus creating conditions favourable to them, ultimately pushing these institutions towards their privatization on throw away prices.

The JI chief said that the rulers were acting as slaves of the Zionists as they were overjoyed on the approval of IMF and World Bank loans as if this was a great victory.

The JI chief said that no institution could flourish unless the workers were given respect. He said that in order to improve the plight of the worker, it was imperative to make the workers shareholders in profits.

He said that the industrialists and mill owners were earning huge profits due to the hard work of the workers but the workers were not being given their due return and had to starve.