KARACHI: A large number of postal employees staged a demonstration at II Chundrigar Road on Wednesday to protest against proposals to privatize the Pakistan Post Office.
The Postal Action Committee for Anti-privatization, an alliance of different unions, organized the demonstration. It has planned to hold more such protests.
Syed Akhtar Ahmed and Syed Qamar Abbas Zaidi, central leaders of the Postal Action Committee, while speaking to the employees, termed the proposed privatization an “economic genocide of 47,000 employees of the department.” They said that the state-run unit is the cheapest mode of postal services. They alleged that privatization was aimed at appeasing the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and vowed to resist such attempts.
The protesters were carrying banners and placards inscribed with calls for stopping the privatization, allowing the department to introduce reforms, restructuring of the department in consultation with trade unions to modernize postal services and running the organization on modern lines.
The protesters also demanded a green signal from the government for using Post Office for distribution of funds under the Benazir Bhutto Income Support Programme, abolition of two postal ministries to reduce the financial burden and restriction on other courier services.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2011
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