HYDERABAD, Dec 19: The Pakistan Wapda Hydro Electric Central Labour Union (CBA) has demanded that the issue of dividing Wapda into different companies should be discussed in the National Security Council and on the floor of parliament.

In a joint statement issued here on Sunday, union president Abdul Latif Nizamani and Sindh chapter leaders Iqbal Kaimkhani, Mir Khan Baloch, Malik Sultan and others opposed the privatization of Wapda and said this would lead to an increase in power tariff.

They said not only domestic consumers but agriculture and industrial sectors would also be affected. They said the World Bank was trying to persuade the government to bifurcate Wapda into 14 companies which they said would increase administrative expenses and each company would fix different rates for electricity.

They recalled that the Rawalpindi Electric Supply Company and the Multan Electric Supply Company in the past had miserably failed to operate the distribution system after privatization.

They said due to the mess created by the distribution companies the government was forced to hand over the distribution system of these cities to Wapda. They demanded that the president and the prime minister should ensure that the issue of breaking Wapda into 14 independent companies was discussed on the floor of parliament and at the NSC.

The union leaders appealed to political parties, workers and people at large to join a long march scheduled to be staged in Rawalpindi/Islamabad on Dec 22 under the banner of the Pakistan Workers Confederation against the privatization of Wapda.

BISE: The Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education Hyderabad has extended the last date for accepting examination forms from eligible candidates appearing in the HSC part-II (class XII) annual examination 2005.

The controller of examinations of the board notified that last date to receive examination forms by affiliated colleges had been fixed as Dec 27 while the last date for depositing examination fee in the bank had been fixed as Dec 29 and for depositing the examination forms in the board Dec 31. He said late fees would be charged as per the earlier notification.