The employees of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) on Wednesday held a protest demonstration against the planned privatisation of state owned oil/gas Exploration and Production Company (E&P). The Islamabad police baton charged the protesters who were led by Pakistan People Party (PPP) Labour leader Chaudhary Manzoor and Independent Member of National Assembly (MNA) Jamshed Dasti. Many protesters of the OGDCL were injured and arrested by the police.
The protesting employees marched towards Parliament House while chanting slogans against the planned privatisation of the country's largest oil and gas producing company. The protesters said the federal government instead of creating employment opportunities for jobless people was trying to deprive them of their jobs.
They rejected the decision of the government to privatise OGDCL and alleged that vested interests were behind the unpopular decision. The protesters said that a large number of employees would become jobless if the OGDCL was privatised. They said if the government could not provide jobs to the educated people at least it should not snatch employment from them. They demanded of the government to withdraw the decision of privatising OGDCL, otherwise, a series of protests would be launched across the country. The protesters reopened the road to traffic on their own and dispersed peacefully.
An official of the OGDCL Employees Union, talking to this correspondent said, "We are not opposing the government move to privatise OGDCL, but we are protesting against government decision to sell off OGDCL shares on cheap price which has been set at Rs 257 per share. He said that actual share price of the national gas company is far higher than the government set base price and with this base price government may generate maximum Rs 85 billion one time. OGDCL is in the position to lend the amount to the government, but the government should not sell the national entity on this price," the official said. A police official said that to maintain law and order, police had to resort baton-charge and teargas to implement 144 CRPC and disperse the unlawful assembly. Around eight to 10 tear gas shells were fired and no protester was injured while police have taken 25 protestors into custody.
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