LWMC says machinery seized from Turkish companies belonged to them

• Police raid Turkish waste management companies and seize their equipment
• “Our company employees and managers were forcibly thrown out from our workshop sites," say companies
• Turkish companies claim footage from security cameras forcibly deleted

Police raided the premises of two Turkish waste management companies in Lahore on Monday night, seizing their equipment and forcing out employees, the companies stated in a press release.

The Turkish companies, Al Bayrak, and Ozpak Group began operations in Punjab in 2012 when they were awarded a contract for trash collection in Lahore and Rawalpindi by the then-provincial government. 

The companies said their contract had ended in February 2019 but was extended for nine months. It again expired in November last year.

However, on Monday, their workshops were raided by police officers without a “written notice or legal justification”.

“All equipment belonging to our company was seized and captured by force,” the press statement said, adding: “Our company employees and managers were forcibly thrown out from our workshop sites.”

It also claimed that photographs of the raid taken by employees and footage recorded by security cameras were “forcibly deleted”.

“We are extremely astonished [by] the tyranny in a great country like Pakistan,” the press release stated, adding: “It is hard to face against this kind of violence even in third world countries.”

For now, the companies insist they will file a criminal complaint against the management of the government-run Lahore Waste Management Company (LWMC).

LWMC responds

In response to the companies’ claim, the LWMC called the Turkish contractors “our brothers”. 

It added that since the contract with the companies had ended, garbage collection in Lahore had been affected. Therefore, the LWMC decided to handle the administrative affairs of the companies’ workshops and use the machines on the field, an LWMC press release stated, quoting the CEO Imran Ali Sultan.

“As per our contract [with the Turkish companies], at the end of the contract, all the machines will belong to the LWMC,” the statement noted.

It further added that payments to the companies were made on time, and in the interest of the public the contracts had not been extended.

In fact, the LWMC announced that from now on it will take care of waste management in Lahore itself, and hire the employees of the Turkish companies.