ISLA MABAD (APP) - Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan Federal Minister for Privatization said on Wednesday that the present government was determined to safeguard the interests of the workers and to empower them for making their respective entities profitable and efficient. The PPP led government is fully aware of the miseries and problems of the retrenched employees of United Bank Limited (UBL), who were retrenched in 1997, he said during a meeting with the delegation of UBL Retrenched Employees Action Committee (UBLREAC), who called on the Minister here on Wednesday. He said that the mode of Public Private Partnership (PPP) was designed to make value addition in the Public Sector Entities (PSEs) and to ensure that no retrenchment was made during the process, says a statement issued here. Senator Waqar said the government has made the workers of PSEs as owners by awarding free of cost 12 pc GoP shares in their respective entities and ensuring their representation on the Board of Directors for having their say in the decision making under Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS), which was the hallmark of the governments efforts in accordance with the manifesto of the PPP for the uplift of the workers. The government, which was reinstating the sacked employees, would never think of the retrenchment of the employees, he added. Earlier, the leader of the delegation Saleemuzzan, President Islamabad Chapter of UBL Retrenched Employees Action Committee (UBLREAC) informed the Minister that in 1997 the services of around 5416 employees of UBL were terminated without giving any notice period and reasons and were politically victimized, while Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto also led the procession to Mizar-e-Qauid at Karachi, taken out by UBLs sacked employees demanding their reinstatement. The delegation included representatives from D.I Khan, Peshawar, Sukkur, R.Y. Khan, Mardan and Nawabshah.