Employees of the House Building Finance Corporation Limited (HBFCL) staged a protest demonstration against its privatisation at the Karachi Press Club here on Thursday. The protesters were holding placards and wearing black bands, caps, and badges to express their resentment against the privatisation.
They were also raising slogans against the high-ups of the corporation, who, they alleged are involved in this business. Representatives of HBFCL, Arifuddin, general secretary CBA, Aftab Channa, vice chairman, CBA and Malik Asif Hayat and others highlighted the problems in their speeches, which might be faced by all stakeholders after its privatisation. They requested the government to revoke the decision of privatisation, saying that PPP led democratic government, which has a slogan to provide food, clothes and shelter to masses, should play its role to roll back the decision.
They said that HBFCL is the only financial institution, serving middle and lower people of society without any discrimination. They said that the decision would deprive the needy of having their own shelters for their families, and requested the government to ensure that the decision to privatise HBFCL is reversed.
They said that HBFCL was established in 1952 on priority basis to provide house building loans to those who had migrated to Pakistan after partition. Later on it had gradually expanded its operations to cover all segments of society. If HBFCL was privatised, shortage of houses would considerably increase, and it would increase ratio of poverty and encroachments, scattering across the country, they feared.