SUKKUR, March 26: Workers of the Pak-Saudi Fertilizer Factory, Mirpur Mathelo, staged a protest demonstration in front of the National Press Club on Tuesday against the selling of the factory.

The protestors demanded the government to make the deal “transparent” and safeguard the rights of the workers.

Speaking on the occasion, the president of the CBA union, Amin Soomro, and Maula Bux Khaskheli, Shabbir Jalbani, and Rahim Bux Maher alleged that with the connivance of the Fauji Fertilizer Corporation and the Privatization Commission, the factory had been sold for Rs8 billion. They said that they had proof of the deal.

They claimed that the workers of the factory had offered Rs10 billion for it.

The leaders of the union announced that the workers would not allow the Fauji Fertilizer Corporation to take over the charge and would continue their struggle till its logical end.

They said that the tender of the sale was made on March 9, while the officers of the Fauji Fertilizer Corporation had written a letter to the Pak-Saudi Fertilizer factory on Feb 18, twenty days before the tender, asking therein that the arrears of the labourers not be paid.

They said the factory’s mill colony alone was worth Rs5 billion.

They claimed that the Fauji Fertilizer Corporation was already on banks’ defaulters’ lists, and wondered as to how it could purchase the factory.

KILLED: The chairman, Sindh Abadgar Board, Jacobabad, M. Rahim Khoso, was killed and his son was injured by armed bandits, near Jacobabad, on Tuesday.

Mr Rahim, along with his son, Jindal Khan Khoso, was headed towards Jacobabad on a motorcycle when they were intercepted by the bandits who demanded the key of their motorcycle. When they offered resistance, the bandits opened fire killing Mr Rahim on the spot.