ISLAMABAD, Aug 16: The government on Wednesday dismissed the opposition’s argument that the prime minister or members of the cabinet committee on privatisation should resign as the Supreme Court held them responsible for commission and omission in the privatisation process of Pakistan Steel Mills.
The opposition Senators opposed privatisation of the mills for being the mother industry and a strategic asset which in their view could go into the hands of an enemy country and damage national pride.
Prof Sajid Mir of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) said it was wrong to assume that the Supreme Court had not held the prime minister or the committee responsible for corruption. He said the attorney-general had admitted in the court that the Privatisation Commission and the cabinet committee had adopted convoluted procedures, which was ample proof that serious violations of law and gross irregularities were committed in the process. According to the senator, the court had said that financial adviser assigned the job of evaluation of the PSM was not provided details of the land attached with the mills.
He said the ruling party had never been given a chance to elect its leader and prime ministers Mir Zafarullah Jamali, Chaudhry Shujaat and now Shaukat Aziz had all been imposed from above.
Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad, who was one of the four official counsel in the case, accused the opposition of using the PSMC issue in vain to bring people to the streets, who, he said, otherwise were not ready to follow them as they saw the country’s economy flourishing.
He said the opposition might raise hue and cry but it would never substantiate charges of corruption against the prime minister or the members of the cabinet committee because the term omission and commission though amounting to violation of rules could not be synonymous with corruption.
He said the opposition would not succeed in bringing people out on the streets on any issue as long as the economy was strong and people at large were satisfied with the governance.
Prof Ibrahim Khan of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal pointed out that according to the judgment when the court asked Mr Sajjad as to what in a nutshell the government would get from the sale when it was picking up the liabilities of the new owners almost equal to the price, he said: “15,000 acres of land unbundled from the PSM deal worth Rs70 billion would remain with the government.”
Saadia Abbasi of the PML-N said Sharifuddin Pirzada, the principal counsel of the government in the case had admitted that as a patriotic Pakistani he was unable to defend the way privatisation of the mills was done and the way the land it carried was valued.
She paid tribute to 80-year-old Barrister Zafarullah who fought the case and exposed the massive irregularities in the deal as the SC verdict revealed.
She claimed the mills would never be privatised since the people at large were against it.
S.M. Zafar from the treasury benches contested the claim of the opposition leader that by fixing responsibility of omission and commission the Supreme Court had indicted any government functionary in the case.
Abdul Rahim Mandokhel of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party termed the sale tantamount to disarming the country. He said under the present dispensation law and order was in a shambles and the economic condition of the country was worsening despite propaganda on the media.
