ISLAMABAD, April 29: The government has formed a six-member task force to privatize Pakistan Steel by December 30, 2005. “I am heading this task force having members from my ministry and the ministry of privatization and investment, and we are making sure that Pakistan Steel is privatized during this year,” said Industries and Production Minister Jehangir Khan Tareen. Talking to Dawn here on Friday, he said Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh was extending all his cooperation to help disinvest Pakistan Steel within this year.
The objective, he said, was to hand over the mills to a private owner to run it more efficiently for which the task force was finalizing a schedule for its privatization. The industries minister opposed the expansion of Pakistan Steel and said let the new investor pump money into the organization. “The government has no business to run the organizations with a view to removing their losses and providing all possible incentives to the private sector to grow,” he said. Mr Tareen said that time had come to disinvest bigger industrial units, including Pakistan Steel, as was promised by the government.
In reply to a query, the minister said he knew that some people were opposing the early privatization of the mills, but then hastened to add: “We are committed to disinvesting Pakistan Steel during 2005.”
He was of the view that unless the government was determined to get rid of loss making state units...it would be difficult to disinvest any bigger industrial unit, including Pakistan Steel. “We are working on the mills’ privatization on fast track basis and hopefully this would be done within this year,” said the minister.
The Pakistan Steel authorities had been planning to expand it from 1.1 million tons to 1.5 million tons annually at a cost of Rs12 billion. However, a new situation has arisen whether to increase the mills’ capacity after it was put on the privatization list of the Privatization Commission. “If Pakistan Steel is to be privatized then why should it be expanded,” a source at the ministry of privatization and investment said. Sources said that the officials of the mills had earlier briefed the higher authorities about the expansion plan in the light of their meetings held with Russian, Chinese, Austrian and Ukraine authorities. All the four countries are interested in taking part in the expansion of Pakistan Steel.
