F A I S A L A B A D : Employees of the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco) refused to implement the loadshedding plan if the government did not withdraw privatisation plans by Friday.

This announcement was made at the District Council Chowlc on Wednesday where hundreds of employees reached after staging demonstrations at different points against the proposed privatisation. Fesco employees have not been working for two weeks and protesting against the proposed privatisation of the company.

Addressing the protesters, Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union Regional Secretary Sarfraz Hundal said Minister for Water and Power Khwaja Asif was against privatisation when the PPP government was in power. But now he was in its favour only to please foreign agents, they alleged. They demandedthe minister resign.

Hundal also appealed to the chairman of National Accountability Bureau to make public the money laundering inquiry against Finance Minister Ishaq Dar so people would know priorities of the rulers.

He said the government should adopt an agenda of reforms rather than privatise, which would not benefit the country.

Other speakers, including Rana Ghulam Jaffar, Rao Inam and Raja Ali Nawaz, said on the one hand the government was obtaining loans to clear interest, while on the other it was privatising and selling public properties, which they called unwise.

They said Fesco employees had decided not to implement the loadshedding plan if the government did not withdraw the privatisation plan till Friday.

They also said the government was introducing `policies of destruction` that were hitting the national economy, but labourers would protect their national assets.