Over 6,000 employees of the Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) staged a sit-in outside the power utility’s head office in Gizri, Clifton on Thursday, Pakistan Today has learnt. Sources said that the protesting KESC workers abandoned their camp outside the Karachi Press Club and set camp outside the power company’s head office to continue their demonstration until their demands are accepted.
Though the protesters had blocked the main gate of the KESC head office, they did not prevent anyone from using the alternative gates of the office to enter or exit the office, the sources added.
They said that the protesting employees set up camp outside the head office, and shouted anti-KESC slogans and made speeches against the power company.
The demonstrators also used abusive language against the KESC management to fan their anger, but the management did not react to their protest, they added. Sources said that the protesters have announced that they would stay outside the KESC head office until the power utility’s management accepts all of their demands. KESC People’s Workers Union Chairman Ayaz Mengal told Pakistan Today that the workers’ unions have unanimously decided to establish a protest camp outside the KESC head office. Mengal said that the workers reached outside the power utility’s head office on motorcycles, cars, buses and trucks by 11:00 am to record their protest against the KESC management. He said that approximately 6,000 KESC employees joined the protest, adding that the workers would not leave the protest camp until the management accepts all of their demands.
The chairman said that the protesting employees neither harass on-duty workers nor stop them from entering the power utility’s office. A KESC spokesman told this scribe that the power company’s operations were adversely disturbed because of the sit-in of its workers outside the head office. He said that the protesting employees were not only challenging the writ of the government by violating Section 144, but they were also violating the Sindh High Court’s orders. Terming the protest as unjustified and illegal, he said that the KESC’s functioning has already been affected on account of the protesting employees disrupting the power company’s work.
The administration has allowed hundreds of agitating union protesters to gather outside the KESC’s head office, which has hampered the power utility from focusing on the issues relating to the electricity consumers, he added.
Claiming that the government has failed providing security to foreign investors, he demanded the government to provide a suitable working atmosphere for the foreign investors who have injected a huge capital into the power utility to turn it into a consumer-friendly company.
