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LAHORE, March 30: The federal government has decided to lay off around 200 — or 28 per cent — employees of the National Fertilizers Corporation (NFC) as part of its plans to “rightsize” the NFC staff after the sale of Pak-Saudi Fertilizers Company (PSFC).
The decision was announced by Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood while talking to reporters here on Saturday.
He said the workers to be laid off would be offered golden handshake as per existing rules.
The minister said the sale of the PSFC had reduced the role of the NFC and made some of its staff working at its marketing and headoffice organizations redundant.
He did not say as to how much would the government save following the layoff of the NFC staff. “The result would start appearing in a few months or a year,” he replied to a question.
With the sale of the PSFC, the NFC is left with four units including Pak-American Fertilizers Company, Pak-Arab Fertilizers Company, Hazara Fertilizers, and Lyallpur Chemical and Fertilizer Company. The minister said the plans for the privatization of the remaining units being run by the NFC would soon be discussed with the Privatization Commission. He also defended the privatization of the PSFC at Rs135 per share as against the reference price of Rs147 per share decided by the government.
GCP: The minister also stated that the government had appointed liquidators to liquidate three of the five remaining ghee units currently owned by the Ghee Corporation of Pakistan (GCP).
He said one of the two units that would be left with the GCP would be retained by the GCP for developing a cluster park on its land in Faisalabad. The last unit, also in Faisalabad, would be sold off in the coming months, he added.
“So after June 30, only 3-4 people would be left at the GCP who would be sent to the NFC headoffice in Lahore.
He said the GCP could not be wound up legally because of pending litigation in the courts.
However, he added, the Ghee Corporation of Pakistan headoffices would be shut down before end of June.
FCC: The minister also announced to wind up the Federal Chemical Corporation by June 30 and to lay off its nine employees. However, he said, the two training institutes — Plastic Institute and Synthetic Fibres Institute — run by the FCC would be retained by the government along with their staff.
