A tremor shook Karachi last week. No, I am not referring to the natural aftershock of an earthquake which registered only 3.9 on the Richter scale. The city was badly shaken by Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) action of removing from service 4,000 workers in one fell swoop on January 19. If one could measure this tremor its magnitude would exceed the worst earthquake the country has suffered.
The epicenter of the quake were the sacked workers, but the aftershock of this dastardly action could be felt through the length and breadth of Karachi. It was an act that threatened to paralyse the whole city, kill industry and commerce, and the life and livelihood of more than the affected 4,000 KESC workers, because Karachi simply cannot survive without electricity.
However, through the four days the crisis lasted, and while negotiations were going on between government committee specially appointed to redress the wrong, the KESC and the workers union, the laid off workers showed a laudable sense of responsibility by not sabotaging the electric supply. In fact, in most parts of the city there was no power disruption for four days, which was like a surprise holiday from the bane of loadshedding. "What is the use of making public suffer," said a sacked worker.
It took four days of negotiations, coercion and persuasion compel KESC to reverse its decision and reinstate all 4,000 workers. The crisis is over, but the KESC should not be let off the hook. What they did was only superficially legal and blatantly immoral. It also made a good case for reversing the privatisation of the KESC, as the city's power supply problems went from bad to worse ever since its privatisation.
Ever since the privatisation the KESC has functioned like a mini dictatorship, as if it is not answerable to anybody including the government. The lay-off was slammed in the Sindh Assembly unanimously and in particular by the ministers.
The ministers called the sacking of 4,000 workers a criminal act, a violation of KESC privatisation agreement and for re-nationalising the power utility. For once the provincial assembly was in tune with the sentiments and thinking of the public.
I live a stone's throw from the Gizri head office of the KESC, outside which the retrenched workers had staged a sit-in. Having witnessed the manner in which the workers conducted themselves through the four days and nights of the sit-in, I suspect the persons who smashed windscreen and burnt cars of officials at the Gizri head office on the first day were outsider bent on creating a law and order situation exploiting the stand-off between workers and KESC management so as to put a spanner in the works of the incumbent, PPP-led coalition.
I have witnessed many demonstrations and sit-ins in the course of my career but never one as disciplined, peaceful and dignified as the sit-in of the KESC sacked workers. At night, and far into the morning, speeches would be made by union leaders and by politicians sympathetic to the workers, sometimes lasting till two and three in the morning. In the still night air, I could hear them clearly from my apartment balcony. I did not note any attempt by the speakers to whip up a disorderly protest. The speeches were fiery, of course, but to the point.
Through the day workers would come in drips and drabs to sit on the green belt to have tea from the chaiwala opposite my apartment building. Anger was writ large on their faces. Some of us asked the workers why they did not contemplate strong action against the KESC. We were told that they would love to but were ordered by their union leaders not to. This leads to the conclusion that everytime a protest turns into a law and order situation with, murder and mayhem disrupting city life and killing innocent people, it is because the leaders lead them on. Followers, it is plain to see, obey leaders.
The KESC management, on the other hand, was pretending to be victimised by the workers and demanded police protection. The management was behaving like the proverbial Razia surrounded by goons (Razia gundo me phus gai). Anybody could see the sacked workers were not behaving like gangsters. It is no wonder that their Chief Bargaining Agent (CBA) asked not only for withdrawal of sacking order and FIRs lodged against KESC employees but demanded an apology from the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of KESC for calling them "hooligans, goondas and ruffians".
Even though the huge number of workers sacked, is shocking-in itself, the numbers do not tell you the whole truth of the KESC's dastardly action. Numbers lack flesh and blood. One of them was Eshwari, an every-smiling willing worker who served as housemaid in DHA bungalows before she was employed as domestic staff by KESC. Sweepers, housemaids and peons were among the "non-core job" workers who were sacked.
There were eleven deaf-mutes who lost their jobs. They were employed in the good old humane days. They were responsible for the paperwork, the making of utility bills, and came under the TPX department of the KESC. Can you imagine their terror; who would employ them now, they must have wondered? May be one or two would get work in the computer typing pool of some goodhearted company but would anybody employ eleven deaf-mutes. The
KESC management couldn't care less.
Each sacked worker was the breadwinner of atleast six more souls. So it is more than 4,000 who were to suffer by the sudden termination of jobs.
Most harrowing was to see some sacked workers sitting on the green belt opposite my apartment building to have an afternoon meal. A group of five, each man with a single roti in hand and a common bowl of lentils to share. They just dipped a piece of roti lightly touching the lentils so that there was enough for all five persons. It was a farce of a meal, a pretence. One roti could not fill the belly of a strapping man, one bowl of lentils is not enough for five persons. But at the moment that is all they could afford.
Two men could not purchase food; they shared a single orange. In another group only one man ate while the others talked with him. There was no regret that the one with food did not offer to share. There were a few who had just a cup of tea. Even had I been a millionaire I would not have offered to buy food for the workers. They were not ordinary labourers such as one feeds out of charity. They were decently dressed blue collar workers, with literacy, with a skill, with the dignity of workers who would rather starve than accept charity.
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