KARACHI, Dec 11: Speakers at a workshop on Sunday condemning privatization, demanded that not only the privatization policy be abolished but all the organizations that have been handed over to the private parties be taken back. They were expressing their views at the concluding session of the two-day consultative workshop, organized by the Labour Education Foundation.

The speakers, who included economist Kaiser Bengali, labour leader Saleem Raza, Prof Nauman and Hassan Mansoor, claimed that the government was pursuing the privatization policy on the dictates of the international financial institutions.

The World Trade Organization (WTO), they said, was created by rich countries apparently for open trade, but the real objective of the organization was to protect the interests of the same rich countries and their multinationals by forcing the poor countries to open their markets to them on one hand, and to check the entry of poor country’s products into the rich countries’ markets, on the other.

In the garb of privatization and liberalization, natural resources of poor countries were being taken away by the rich countries. Even the services sector concerns, like those providing utilities, were being privatized and given away to the multinationals only to make the masses in poor countries dependent on them for water, power, education, health, etc.

They said that the need of the hour was that the civil society created awareness in the masses of this ‘conspiracy’ so that pressure on the governments in developing states could be developed to prevent them from entering into such agreements.

They said that between 1999 and 2005, the military government in Pakistan had privatized 27 major national concerns to earn about Rs240 billion, and as the government had already stated, over 90 per cent of the amount would go under the head of debt servicing. “This clear means that there is no intention to utilize any part of this amount in strengthening the social sector to ensure improved facilities like health, education, etc.”

They rejected the government’s claim that the national economy had improved and the per capita income had risen to $731. On the contrary, they observed, the number of people committing suicides due to poverty and joblessness was on the rise. The government’s policies were beneficial only to the rich, who were getting richer while the poor were getting poorer.

The speakers also demanded that workers’ due rights be restored and trade union activities allowed in all organizations.

Besides a large number of workers, representatives of the National Trade Union Federation, Women Workers’ Helpline, ActionAid, Movement for Labour Rights, Labour Party and the Landhi Mazdoor Rabita Committee participated in the workshop.