Pakistan's Army seized control of the national telecom firm after trade unions called a strike against the company’s privatisation next week, officials and union leaders said on Sunday.The troop deployment follows the government’s announcement yesterday that bids would be invited to invest in 26 per cent of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd. (PTCL) on June 18. The government had earlier postponed the privatisation of the country’s largest telecom company to end a 10-day stand-off with 55,000 PTCL workers.Military officials said security forces had taken technical control of sensitive installations of PTCL in major cities while police and paramilitary rangers were posted to check on the law and order situation.‘‘We have sent our experts from the Corps of Signals on the request of the PTCL authorities to take control of all important installations,’’ said Military spokesman Colonel Idrees Malik. Witnesses said troops arriving in machine-gun fitted vehicles took control of telephone exchanges and vital installations in major cities of the populous Punjab province. ‘‘We have asked the staff to perform their duties as usual,’’ an Army officer in the central city of Multan said. ‘‘However we would not let them switch off or discontinue the telecom system in any case,’’ he added.Union leaders have threatened to paralyse the service if the decision was not withdrawn by Wednesday. ‘‘We’ll continue our protest and go on strike on June 15 if the authorities stick to their plan,’’ union leader Shahid Ayub said in Karachi. 300 Pak Telecom workers detainedKARACHI: In a pre-emptive move against a planned strike at Pakistan’s largest state-run telephone company, authorities have detained more than 300 workers, a union leader said. Union leader Shahid Ayub claimed over 300 workers were detained nationwide over the weekend on charges of disturbing the peace. Authorities confirmed dozens of arrests. —PTI
