ISLAMABAD, July 30: Urgent repair work is being carried out at the Pakistan Steel Mills ahead of its planned privatization by December, says its Chairman Lt-Gen Abdul Qayyum (retd).

“This is a decision of the federal government to disinvest 51 per cent to 74 per cent equity stake management control to a strategic investor on Dec 31, for which we are currently carrying out its necessary repair,” he said.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, he said that in 25 years, no capital repair had been done in the mills, with the result that the government had no option but to privatize it. He said the Citigroup Global Markets Limited, UK, along with a consortium of technical, legal and accounting/tax/HR advisers, comprising Corous Consulting Limited, Dignam & Co and A.F.Ferguson & Co had been appointed as financial adviser for the privatization.

Gen Qayyum said that keeping in view the vulnerability of the mills, its management had upgraded some of its plants, including blast furnaces, cold re-rolling mills and hot strip mills. “And the remaining repair work is being done so that the future buyer could easily increase its production from 1.1 million tons to 1.5 million tons annually,” he said.

In reply to a question, he said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had held out assurance that the interest of workers would be kept supreme while privatizing the mills. “We have been told that the federal government will provide all the comfort, assurance and backup support to the employees in case of privatization.”

The government, he said, would intervene to ensure a better future for the qualified and experienced employees of Pakistan Steel. According to him, the new buyer could get the plant fully automated by spending $150-300 million, which would produce high quality steel.