Workers besiege FESCO headquarters to protest privatisation

Perturbed by imminent fast-track privatisation process, thousands of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO) employees from eight districts on Wednesday continued to besiege FESCO Headquarters at West Canal Road, Faisalabad, which has been locked out by the protesters since Monday.
The protesters warned that if the government did not accept their demands, they would cut off power supply to Faisalabad, the third largest city of the country.
The Lahore High Court (LHC) had on Tuesday restrained the federal government from appointing new chief executives in Lahore and Faisalabad electric supply companies on a petition challenging the appointments.
However, the court allowed that the selection process might continue.
FESCO employees locked out the offices and staged rallies from various subdivisions of the company. The rallies converged at FESCO Headquarter in Abdullah Pur on the Canal Road, where the protesters staged a sit-in and chanted slogans against the privatisation of the company and appointment of non-technical chief executives.
The issue was triggered by the appointment of a chief executive from the private sector, a government move taken as a first step to implement the privatisation process.
On Monday, they locked the regional office for an indefinite period while protesting against the move, fearing it would eventually lead to privatisation of the power utility.
They voiced fear that the appointment of CEO from the private sector would be the first step towards privatisation of the company and later workers would be laid off on a large scale.
They demand the expulsion of the newly appointed CEO and asked the government to fill the top seat from among five chief engineers of the company instead of bringing people from the private sector.
Hydroelectric Union Regional Secretary Rasheed Ahmad said the employees feared that more than one third of the workforce would get terminated as a result of the privatisation.
“The situation has driven a deep sense of anxiety and frustration among the employees who have vowed to fight back to save their families from starvation”, he said. “Privatisation is not a solution and the government should consider how to overcome energy shortages and provide cheap electricity,” he remarked.
Bashir Ahmad, an officer in FESCO, questioned why the government wanted to destroy the company by turning it into an entity like Pakistan International Airlines and Pakistan Railways and that too at a time when it had been performing exceptionally well.
Engineers Association President Gazanfer Ali said the government should focus on building new power generation plants based on coal and water resources to protect the people from expensive electricity.
The employees questioned the capability of private sector CEOs, saying they did not have the technical know how to run the electricity companies.
They also opposed any move to withdraw free electricity facility for employees of Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) and Pakistan Electric Power Company (PEPCO).