KARACHI, April 2: Workers of the Pakistan Steel on Sunday rejected the sale of the mills for Rs21.68 billion, and demanded reversal of the decision to privatize it. If it has to be sold, it should be given to its workers who were ready to buy it at a higher price of Rs 24 billion, they said.

Speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club, leaders of the Pakistan Steel Employees Action Committee (PSEAC) warned that if the deal with the successful bidder was not rejected and the workers’ offer was not accepted, the employees would launch a protest movement from April 7 and observe the day as ‘black day’.

They alleged that irregularities in the process of PS privatization had been committed to accept the ridiculously low bid, and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice of the affair. They also urged the National Accountability Bureau to initiate a probe into it.

The PSEAC leaders also rejected management’s claim that a package deal had been struck with the workers for the privatization of the PS.

Pointing out that the steel mills had been sold at a throw-away price, they said that the mills, along with the over 4,500 acres of its land, was valued at more than Rs91 billion according to the current market prices.

They wondered that an organization making a profit of Rs7 billion had been sold at just Rs21 billion “which is a daylight robbery of the national exchequer.”