KARACHI, Nov 21: The Sindh labour department is learnt to have been dragging its feet in taking any action against the Pakistan Steel Mills, where at least nine workers died in the worst ever industrial disaster of the country.

A well-placed source revealed that the labour department was not even following the orders of its minister Dewan Mohammad Yusuf Farooqui for an inquiry to fix the responsibility.

The minister had also ordered that the inquiry be conducted by an officer not below the rank of director and that the report be submitted with him within a week.

The source said that over five months had passed but the director had not yet even started probing into the tragedy. Though a few junior officials had carried out the probe, these reports were kept in the cold storage and no action had been taken against the responsible officials of the biggest industrial complex in the southern part of the country.

The sources said that on one hand the steel mills had purged thousands of its employees under different pretexts, such as golden handshake, downsizing and rightsizing, and on the other it had been keeping daily wagers in the organisation for over 10 years.

The sources said that the labour department was reluctant to take action against the responsible officials as the PSM chief was stated to be a batch-mate and close friend of an influential person, currently holding an important post in the federal capital.