Hafeez sidelined for opposing PSM sale, Supreme Court told
By Nasir Iqbal
ISLAMABAD, June 12: The Supreme Court was told on s Monday that former privatisation minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh was sidelined for his opposition to the sale of the Pakistan Steel Mills.
The counsel for the Pakistan Steel People’s Workers’ Union, Mujib Pirzada, told a nine-member bench hearing petitions against the PSM privatisation, that the mill privatization was approved in a single day by another cabinet member, Owais Leghari, who was given additional portfolio of privatization for a few days only.
Soon after finalization of the deal, Zahid Hameed was appointed new privatization minister, he added.
Dr Sheikh was in the cabinet when the March 10 scheduled privatisation was postponed, he said, adding that it showed mala fide intentions of the government.
The bench disagreed with Pirzada and observed that since Dr Sheikh had completed his tenure as a senator, therefore, he was not there at the time of the sale of the country’s biggest industrial concern.
Justice Javed Iqbal, a member of the bench, mentioned a U-turn in the privatization policy, saying that when the concept was introduced in 1990s, it was decided to sell only sick and dead units, but now viable units were being sold.
The government allocated Rs22 billion to run the Utility Stores in public interest, Mr Pirzada said and asked why the government was reluctant to invest Rs1 billion in the unit which provided job to many.
On market value of PSM lands, Mr Pirzada said that the lands were worth Rs250 billion but the entire unit with the lands had been sold for Rs21.68 billion.
He said that the buyers and bidders of the PSM were different as a three-member consortium had purchased the mill for Rs21.68 billion but in the final agreement, a fourth company, the Capital PSMC SPV (Mauritius), was mentioned as a lead buyer.
The PSMC SPV was an off-shore joint venture company of the ATG Holdings and the MMK Holdings, both of which were not part of the pre-bidding, he said.
“These things show that the deal is neither transparent nor in national or public interest,” Mr Pirzada argued, saying that after the PSM sale, the provinces would loose employment quota as there had been a 55 per cent job quota reserved for Punjab, 33 per cent for Sindh and 12 per cent each for the NWFP and Balochistan in the mill.
He said that the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2,000 was against articles 153 and 154 of the constitution since the government had not called a Council of Common Interest session for its approval.
The constitution was in abeyance from 1999 to 2003 and the ordinance was promulgated in 2,000 and not brought in parliament for a debate, he argued.
Mr Pirzada disputed that PSM privatization issue was ever discussed by a standing committee of the National Assembly or tabled before the assembly, which was a legal requirement.
It was discussed in the lower house on an opposition-sponsored adjournment motion and that too without adopting any resolution, he added.
Earlier, while concluding his arguments, PSM counsel Wasim Sajjad said that the mill management had issued post-dated cheques to pay Rs7.7 billion liabilities on May 15, that were to be cashed by May 28. However, the same could not be transacted due to court’s injunction wherein all the activities had been frozen, he added.
As on December 31, 2005, the total assets of the mill were worth Rs35.9 billion, which, after deducting liabilities, stood at Rs21.3 billion, he said.
