Workers are striking over threat to jobs

The government owns 88% of PTCL and plans to sell off a 26% stake. But unions fear job losses, causing thousands of workers to strike.

The authorities have confirmed they made dozens of arrests after unions threatened to disrupt service unless the sale was withdrawn by Wednesday.

Unions said that PTCL makes money and that there were no grounds for a sale.

Workers' fears

There is no grounds for it to be sold. There will be no security for thousands of its workers and they will be made jobless Shahid Ayub, leader of the PTCL Action Committee

Shahid Ayub, leader of the PTCL Action Committee, which represents nine unions with workers at the firm, claimed that more than 300 PTCL workers had been detained for "disturbing peace".

"This is a profit-earning organisation," said Mr Ayub.

"There is no grounds for it to be sold. There will be no security for thousands of its workers and they will be made jobless."

He said that PTCL has 71,000 workers.

Last month, telecoms firms including Singapore Telecoms, China Mobile HK, Telekom Malaysia, Saudi Oger, Emirates Telecoms, Turkcell and the Almal Consortium of Egypt, were shortlisted as potential bidders for the 26% stake.

The unions fear the government is selling its stake - which has a market value of around $1.5bn (£0.83bn) - too cheaply.

Army attendance

There were conflicting reports about how much disruption the strike had caused.

Unions said "thousands" of PTCL's workers were on strike. But PTCL said that its service had run "smoothly" on Sunday.

An army spokesman said that troops had kept 52 exchanges running.

This is not the first strike by PTCL workers fearing the consequences of partial privatisation.

In May, 65,000 workers stopped work for a week, badly disrupting phone services.

After that strike, the company's management said they would seek to address workers' concerns and come up with a new date for potential buyers to bid.

The government has now announced 18 June as the new date for bids, along with the revised terms it had hoped would appease workers.

The previous date for bids had been 10 June.