ISLAMABAD, Feb 11: Pakistan Steel Employees Action Committee has turned down various Privatization Commission proposals to disinvest the Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation.
Most of the proposals were related to Golden Handshake Scheme, it was learnt.
The Committee urged the Privatization Commission to hold an urgent meeting with the employees’ representatives to sort out pending issues.
According to a Feb 7 letter written to Iftikharul Haque, Member Board, Privatization Commission, the action committee said that it wanted to discuss the sale of less than 75 per cent Pakistan Steel shares.
The committee said it wanted to discuss the buyer’s guarantee to expand the steel mill’s production up to three million tons during a five-year period.
Earlier, the Privatization Commission had written a letter to the action committee on Feb 3 and sought its commitments on GHS.
Sources said that the steel mills’ privatization was in doldrums with the likely departure of Minister of Privatization and Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh shortly to Washington to accept a position in the World Bank as its managing director.
“Unfortunately, issues relating to officers and employees of the mills have not been resolved because of which one does not see the privatization of the mills in the immediate future,” said a source in the Privatization Commission.
He confirmed that differences between the employees and the Privatization Commission could not be overcome, delaying the privatization.
“If the government can offer Rs6 billion package to the PTCL, why cannot it give such a package to the employees of the steel mills?” the source said, adding the five pre-qualified bidders were waiting for the bidding within this month or early next month.
The mills’ CBA also wrote a letter to the prime minister to resolve issues concerning the privatization of the Pakistan Steel. It said that no answer had yet been received despite a number of letters had been written to Privatization Commission and the ministry of production and industries.
The letter termed it ironic that the profitable steel mills plant was being privatized in haste, while PSFCL, SMC, Lahore and the so-called Hadeed Welfare Trust which are non-profit earning organization were being retained in the public sector.
The CBA called for administrative, financial and technical audit of the mills with physical verification. It said that the future of the Mills should be decided after the formulation of iron and steel industry policy and in the light of the fate of the previously privatized steel sector industries. “Are we going to repeat the same with the PS. In this connection, the ownership (private or public) of the iron and steel industry of neighbouring countries such as India, China and Iran may be taken into consideration,” the letter written to the prime minister said.
The employees of the mills, it said, were uncertain about the future of the organization. The letter claimed that there had been a decline in the production capacity. “Against this dismal background, the employees of the PS are extremely apprehensive that the mills would be eventually shut down and the invaluable land would be sold off as real estate, which would be a windfall for the unscrupulous investors and the functionaries of the government”, the letter said.
