A big rally of workers on Saturday demanded of the government to end its anti-people privatisation policy and accept the just demands of the employees of PIA and do away with the compulsory service act and the privatisation commission.
According to details, labour unions and organisations across the country observed a ‘black day’ on Saturday to express solidarity with the workers of PIA and to condemn the killing of two workers.
On this occasion, National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and Home-Based Women Workers Federation (HBWWF) arranged protest demonstrations and rallies in Karachi, Hyderabad, Hub, Lahore, Sanghar, Multan, Faisalabad and other towns and cities. In Karachi, the activists of the NTUF and HBWWF staged a rally at the Karachi Press Club (KPC) led by central president of NTUF Rafiq Baloch and general secretary of HBWWF Zahra Khan.
A large number of workers belonging to different industries as well as the home-based working women and trade union leaders attended the rally. On the occasion, an effigy of privatisation was torched. Later, the protest rally also joined the different protest demos of workers organisations at the Karachi Press Club.
While addressing the rally, the speakers said that the government with its anti-labour policies had sent the whole industrial and trade process of the country to a crisis. They said the government was working with its full force to implement its anti-democracy, anti-worker and anti-people policies. “The recent example of this policy is the plan to privatise the PIA on the behest of imperialistic institutions. The workers of not only the PIA but also of other organisations are protesting against it. To suppress the protest of PIA workers, the government brutally used the state power which resulted in the death of two workers and injuries to many others. This shameful act has revived the dark memories of the dictatorship era.”
They said the workers with their struggle would foil these dictatorial policies of the government. They said the blood of the PIA martyrs would not go in vain. They said the great struggle of PIA workers had given a new life and force to the anti-privatisation movement in Pakistan. The great struggle and resistance of workers would foil the privatisation and other anti-people plans of the government, they pledged.
The speakers said that this government backed by the industrialists from the day one had chosen to safeguard the interests of global imperialistic institutions. “It has decided to attack the trade unions and go for economic genocide of workers in the name of privatisation. It is deliberately harming the public sector institutions which is a deep conspiracy aimed at privatising the government-run institutions.” They said the corrupt administration was responsible for the poor performance of these institutions. They said the workers were not involved in harming these institutions as they had been opposing with full force their privatisation, and other anti-worker steps of the government. They said only 16 per cent of the PIA revenue was spent to pay salaries to its employees. They asked where the rest of this amount was being spent should be investigated. They said so far two bail-out packages were given to the PIA, one in the year 1971, and other recently to purchase new aircrafts. The present government in two and half years have given Rs 14 billlion out of which Rs 7.5 billion were spent to purchase new aircraft.
They said even today the PIA was paying Rs 8.5billion tax annually. “The rulers have been spreading false propaganda about the losses of the PIA. When in 1954 this institution was established the government investment in it just Rs 50billin. However, due to the work of its employees, today its assets are worth Rs 700 billion and it contributes Rs 1.25 billion annually to the national economy. It provided direct or indirect employment to some 1,25,000 people.”
They said the privatisation policy had resulted in unemployment of millions of people. “This process has failed not only in Pakistan but also in whole world. In Pakistan, the business train of Pakistan Railways, PTCL and KESC are the examples of failure of privatisation in Pakistan. Here 65 per cent privatised institutions are either closed down or working in loss. The privatisation policy is an open war of industrialist rulers of Pakistan against the workers through which they want to snatch the rights and privileges from the workers. However, the working class is ready to fight and it would not allow selling of the national assets for peanuts,” they alleged.
