ISLAMABAD, Feb 9: The government has reconstituted the Board of Directors of Pakistan Steel with a view to further improving its performance and ensuring early expansion of the organization.

Officials told Dawn here on Wednesday that the previous board of Pakistan Steel was suspended on February 2 and was reconstituted with immediate effect. The board was constituted during former Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali's tenure.

The ministry of industries and production sent an urgent fax message to the Pakistan Steel chairman on February 7 about the decision, a copy of which was also made available to this correspondent.

The 12-member new board would now include Lt-Gen (retd) Abdul Qayyum, Chairman, Pakistan Steel; Syed Zaheer Ali Shah, Additional Secretary, ministry of industries and production; Tauqir Ahmad, Additional Secretary, finance division, Mohammad Ramzan Bhatti, member, Central Board of Revenue; Ms Arifa Saboohi, Joint Secretary, ministry of industries and production; M. Mansoor Zubair, Director General, Privatization Commission; Abdul Razak Dawood, Chairman, Engineering Development Board; Maj-Gen Mohammad Javed, Chairman, Pakistan Ordnance Factories (POF), Wah Cantt; Tariq S. Saigol, Chairman, Kohinoor Maple Leaf Group, Lahore; Khawaja Iqbal Hassan, President, NDLC-IFIC Bank, Karachi; Zafar Ahmad Khan, Director, Engro Chemical Ltd; and Sohail Wajahat Sidique, Chief Executive Officer, Siemens, Pakistan.

The officials said that the higher authorities wanted the management of Pakistan Steel to increase its annual capacity from 1.1 million tons to 1.5 million tons as early as possible for which negotiations had earlier been conducted with Russia, China, Ukraine and Austria.

In this respect a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with Russia when President Pervez Musharraf visited Moscow in 2003. "The expansion of PS could not take place owing to one reason or the other since 1985," a source said, adding Pakistan Steel capacity was 1.1 million tons in 1985 and today in 2005 it has the same capacity that must be increased.

He said that generally the condition of the plant was not good due to which at times it becomes difficult to remove mechanical and electrical faults that warranted early BMR of Pakistan Steel.

The PS authorities have been maintaining that the process of BMR had started after it began showing profit few months ago.