- Protestors, police exchange blows as OGDCL employees protest against company’s privatisation
- Police baton-charge, teargas protesters heading towards Parliament
Following government’s announcement to divest shares of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) to launch Islamic bonds next month, several OGDCL employees registered a protest in the federal capital Wednesday against the privatisation of the company.
Protestors, mostly OGDCL employees, gathered in hundreds at the capital’s NADRA Chowk and raised slogans against the privatisation of the company, saying that the move would severely affect their livelihood.
An OGDCL employee, while talking to Pakistan Today, termed the government’s decision to sell the company’s shares as “anti-labourer policy”. “Where will we go once the company is privatized? We will not allow the government to take such decisions on its own.”
The situation got charged when the protestors decided to move towards the Parliament.
Security personnel assembled against the protestors, tear-gassed and baton-charged several to disperse them from the venue. Several arrests were also made on the occasion, however the police has not disclosed the identities of the ones under detention.
Following police’s failed efforts, National Assembly Member Jamshed Dasti intervened to mediate the conflict, but to no avail.
Several policemen were seen running after the protestors, pelting them with stones, trying to run them away. The protestors too retaliated to the police’s use of force and pelted stones.
GO NAWAZ GO
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