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| May 28, 2005 | Saturday | Rabi-us-Sani 19, 1426 |
Private sector will help achieve progress: Musharraf
KARACHI, May 27: President Gen Pervez Musharraf has said that the private sector and private enterprise will take the country towards development and help make it an Asian tiger. Addressing officials of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) during a visit to the organization on Friday, he said Pakistan Steel would be privatized after bringing about improvement in it.
He praised the turnaround of the Pakistan Steel and gave credit for this to its management and workforce. He noted that the mills capacity today stood at 1.1 million tons and efforts were being made to increase it to 3 million tons.
The president was happy to learn that after a decade some 1,500 of the PSM employees had been promoted and two bonuses were given last year. He directed the management to give one more bonus this year to all the workers.
He said the PSM machinery had become old and it needed renovation and improvement.
He pointed out that in Europe and in Southeast Asia, the private sector and private enterprise were contributing to the development process.
Referring to the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd, he said when the government planned its (PTCL) privatization there was a lot of opposition from its employees.
Now, he said, there were tremendous opportunities for skilled workers in the telecom sector which, he added, had happened because of the privatization.
Gen Musharraf said there was increasing investment in the steel sector and announced that another steel mill was coming up in the vicinity.
He assured the PSM employees that through privatization the demand for skilled workers would increase. He said there would be no retrenchment and added that “in case such a thing happens, I give you a guarantee that we will intervene and try to provide all the comfort and assurance of back-up support.”
Privatization, he said, was good for Pakistan and its future.
The president said he had only one demand from Pakistan Steel – “Do well for the nation, for Steel Mills and for yourselves.”
Noting that the last tranche of its Habib Bank’s loan was being returned today, he said he was happy that now the Steel Mills was out of problems.
The president presented a cheque for Rs650 million on behalf of the Pakistan Steel to Habib Bank president Zakir Mahmood as the final instalment of its Rs2.5 billion loan.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Production, Industries and Special Initiatives Jehangir Tarin said that the government’s target was to modernize the steel sector.
Earlier, President Musharraf performed the inauguration of the Jinnah Gate at the Steel Mills.—APP
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