ISLAMABAD April 10: The sale of 75 per cent shares of the Pakistan Steel Mills against Rs21.68 billion will be debated in the National Assembly on Thursday (April 13). The house decided to hold debate on adjournment motions sought to be moved by a number of PPP Parliamentarians lawmakers, who termed the sale of the industrial behemoth at a throwaway price scandalous.

Sherry Rahman, a PPP MNA, in a brief on the deal released to the press said: “No one from the regime has been able to explain what the big hurry was to sell such a large employer and producer of steel when valuation itself had become … controversial.”

She alleged that the price agreed by “frontmen covers not even the price of land attached to the sale, let alone its other profitable plants, valuable equipment, high inventory and enviable cash position”.

She said that the “market price” evaluated at Rs300,000 per acre by the cabinet committee on privatisation chaired by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz was not correct; it was Rs10 million per acre.

Naheed Khan said the mill’s current inventory of Rs27 billion, including steel goods and raw material, “gives the buyer Rs6 billion profit on the very first day”.