Rising in Protest

Wapda workers threaten to plunge the country into darkness if govt pushes ahead with its privatization agenda

SUKKUR: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led coalition government has finally started complying with the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) conditions to revive its bailout package by withdrawing subsidies on gas, electricity and petroleum products.

This move has further burdened the common man as many political and social organizations voice their concerns over an unprecedented rise in inflation and unemployment.

Employees of the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) are, however, protesting in anticipation against the government’s possible move to privatize Wapda’s power distribution companies (discos) as part of the IMF deal.

Privatization of Wapda, a government-owned utility that maintains power and water in Pakistan, has been on the cards since 1999 and successive governments have tried six times to privatize the utility but failed to implement this plan due to strong backlash by opposition parties and Wapda employees.

The utility was, however, divided into power distribution companies which are 11 in total.

These discos include the Lahore Electric Supply Company (Lesco), the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco), the Quetta Electric Supply Company (Qesco), the Hyderabad Electric Supply Company (Hesco), the Multan Electric Supply Company (Mesco), the Sukkur Electric Supply Company (Sepco) and the Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (Fesco).

In its annual report for 2021-22, the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) noted that these discos caused a loss of Rs292 billion to the national exchequer in one year. According to the report, Rs170 billion were lost due to lack of recoveries while Rs122 billion were lost due to line losses.

The disco which suffered the greatest loss—of Rs63 billion— was Pesco. Pesco also remained number one in terms of power outages.  Nepra described the performance of discos as disappointing and proposed that the federal government privatize them in order to avoid future losses.

A senior government official, who requested anonymity said the federal government is pressing ahead with a privatization plan that includes privatization of discos.

Anticipating this move, the All Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Workers Union has held several protests across Sindh. Shuja Ghamro, zonal chairman of the union, said the possible privatization of the discos at the behest of the IMF is beyond comprehension.

“At present, all the eleven distribution companies across the country are facing a shortage of staff due to which these companies are facing great difficulties in performing their functions,” he said.

According to Ghamro, there is a shortage of 3,600 employees in Sepco alone and there has been no new recruitment in the distribution companies across the country for a long time.

“The government not only wants to hand over the power distribution companies to the private sector, but also wants to outsource various feeders of these companies and all this is happening on the instructions of the IMF,” he said.

He claimed that the government has decided to privatize the national enterprises just to hide its incompetence, but the Wapda employees will not allow this to happen.

“If the distribution companies are privatized, thousands of Wapda employees will get jobless. Electricity is already very expensive and poor people are not able to bear the burden of electricity bills. If the siscos are handed over to the private sector then electricity will become more expensive,” he said.

Ghamro warned that if the government did not withdraw the decision to privatize the discos then the union would plunge the entire country into darkness.

“We, the employees of Wapda, will not hesitate in making any sacrifice. We rather demand that the government instead of privatizing the discos merge them once again into a single entity.

“We assure the government that reviving Wapda in its original form will help a great deal in reducing the losses and improving the system,” he said.

Syed Zahid Hussain Shah, another union leader, agreed that the economic situation of the country is worsening and that it badly needs the release of the next tranche of the IMF loan.

“Increasing inflation has made the life of the poor people miserable and even the middle class is finding it difficult to make ends meet. However, the government needs to make prudent decisions.”

He made it clear to the government that if it does not withdraw the decision to privatize the discos, then they will respond with full force. “We will not allow anyone to sell these national assets to please foreign powers,” he added.