KARACHI: Former Senate Chairman Senator Raza Rabbani has said that privatisation of the WAPDA’s distribution and power generation companies would be a security risk for the country.
Addressing a press conference along with trade unions and labour leaders at the Karachi Press Club on Saturday, Rabbani condemned the recent increase in power rates and demanded to take “back this decision”.
“Earlier, the government had increased prices of petroleum products unilaterally, which would affect the poor population and further increase in prices of essential commodities, Rabbani said.
“Privatisation is being done under the agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), but the agreements are being kept secret. The privitisation of basic infrastructure industries like power generation units may become a threat to national security,” he remarked.
Demanding the government to cancel its entire privatisation programme, he said that the privatisation programme is unconstitutional because all the public sector companies under the federation come under the purview of Council of Common Interests (CCI).
“Unfortunately, the government is supporting its crony capitalists and big private investors and plans to hand over national assets to their friends. The government gave a National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) to the construction industry by providing attractive incentives to big investors so that they may whiten their black money. Only three days ago, another NRO ordinance was issued, extending the incentives package for the industry for the next six months,” he said.
On the other hand, Rabbani said that workers who play an important role in the development of the country are not provided with any facilities. “Instead, they are being crushed through price hikes and other anti-people measures.”
“Committee on privatisation or Cabinet is not entitled to take any such incident to privatise,” he added.
The former Senate chairman said that earlier, a CBA in all companies of WAPDA was present, but the present government decided to set up separate trade unions in each company, which he termed an anti-workers step.
“The government has decided to hold a separate referendum in each distribution company,” he added.
Rabbani said earlier the government had privatised K-Electric, which was sold to a private management on the condition that the new management would invest in infrastructure. However, he pointed out that services were not improved and citizens continued to suffer.
He opined that privatisation of WAPDA’s distribution companies would not improve efficiency, but further aggravate the situation.
Speaking about the Cabinet’s decision to privatise 10 distribution companies and four power distribution companies, All Pakistan WAPDA Hydro Electric Workers Union (CBA) President Abdul Latif Nizamani and General Secretary Khurshid Ahmed said that the government has decided to remove 1,806 workers of the powerhouse. “Over three crore customers receiving power through the WAPDA system in Pakistan would suffer, while power supply to both domestic and industrial consumers would be hampered like this,” they said.
“WAPDA’s performance is impressive where recovery is 100 per cent and privatisation would be harmful to the national economy wherein large numbers of employees would be jobless,” said Nizamani.
It may be noted here that the IMF delegation is coming to Pakistan in March and it is their pre-requisite to privatise 10 distribution companies.
Similarly, Akhlaq Ahmed of the KE Workers Union said that national assets should not be privatised.
Speakers on the occasion recalled that in the past, private companies in Multan and Rawalpindi were handed over to WAPDA due to faulty power supply systems after which an improvement in services was noted and millions of consumers in rural and hilly areas got access to electricity.
The speakers demanded that talks be held with representatives over 130,000 WAPDA workers, while the proposed privatisation process of all national institutions should be abolished.
