ISLAMABAD: Taking a new turn after baton charge of police on workers protesting against Oil and Gas Development Company (OGDCL) privatisation and disinvestment of its shares, now Opposition parties have come into action by staging a walk out of National Assembly session against this brutality.
The joint opposition members from Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), Awami National Party (ANP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) took the decision to register their protest at a meeting held in the chamber of Syed Khursheed Shah, Leader of Opposition in National Assembly.
According to the report, opposition member Shazia Marri from PPP condemned the police violence on the OGDCL employees and warned that if the government continues to use force, the Parliament members will take their protest to the streets as well.
On Wednesday, OGDCL workers were protesting against the firm’s privatisation and attempted to reach the Parliament House. This led to a clash between the protestors and the police. Dozens of policemen and OGDCL workers were injured while 25 of the workers were also arrested.
Meanwhile, on the directives issued by Interior Miniter Chaudhary Nisar, Additional Deputy Commissioner General (ADCG) Maryam Mumtaz has been appointed judicial inquiry officer to investigate the matter and the alleged use of violence by the police. He has been directed to submit the report in seven days.
Talking to reporters, Privatisation Commission (PC) Chairman Muhammad Zubair said the next tranche of the $6.7 billion bailout programme was tied up with the OGDCL transaction.
“Yes, it is a depressing time… it isn’t the right time for a capital market transaction… but the government does not have the option of postponing the deal,” he said when asked about the significant decline in the share values of OGDCL.
The transaction will be carried out at London Stock Exchange and Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) simultaneously and the book-building process will take place between November 5 and 7. The change in OGDCL’s share value has so far resulted in the anticipated loss of over $100 million or Rs10.3 billion.
Initially, the government was anticipating $815 million to $850 million in receipts by selling 7.5% shares of the company since its shares were being traded for Rs250 at the time, Khurram Schehzad, a member of the PC board, said.
