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Pakistan union signs

agreement on

power plant

sale

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Privatisation Commission signed an agreement with a labour union that ended months of resistance to the privatisation of the state-owned Kot Addu power plant, an official said on Sunday.

Commission Chairman Naveed Qamar said the accord offered job security, a 35 percent wage rise and other benefits, including share options, to employees at the 1,600-megawatt thermal plant near the city of Multan in Punjab province.

"It is a landmark day, a historic day," Qamar said before the signing ceremony.

Opposition from a union representing 160,000 employees of the state Water and Power Development Authority (WAPDA) had held up the sale of a 26 percent stake in Kot Addu and transfer of management control to a strategic investor for seven months.

The deal was originally due to have been completed in March.

"It is a historic day in the history of trade unionism in Pakistan," WAPDA Union President Mian Muneer said.

He said the union had resisted the sale of the plant because it opposed the privatisation of all state-owned units.

"Today we give up this stand -- and if I was an actor I would have shed some tears while saying that," Muneer said.

His union had threatened to cut off Pakistan's entire electricity supply if the privatisation process went ahead.

"Keeping in view the interest of the country, the workers and trade union, we have agreed to sign this deal," he said.

The strategic investor, yet to be selected, is to assume Kot Addu's $756 million debt from WAPDA. The government will retain the remaining shares.

British Gas, Britain's National Power, the U.S.-led CMS consortium and the American companies Mission Energy and Southern Electric have been shortlisted for the contract.

The union had staged several marches and demonstrations against the partial privatisation of WAPDA plants and its members had prevented prospective buyers from entering them.

"We are not making this deal under threat, intimidation or greed. We are trustees of the workers and we are signing it in the interest of workers," Mian Khurshid, secretary general of the WAPDA Union said.-Reuter