Attorney general issued with notice on plea against PSM workers’ sacking

The Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday issued a notice to the attorney general of Pakistan on a petition filed against the federal government’s decision to terminate 9,350 workers from the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), asking him to clarify if the matter was being pursued in the Supreme Court.

Hearing the petition of the Pakistan Steel Mills Workers Union, the SHC’s division bench headed by Justice Omar Sial said the SC might have taken cognisance of the matter pertaining to the affairs of the PSM.

The bench said that it will be appropriate for the court to receive clarification from the attorney general with regard to the pending adjudication in the top court prior to proceeding with the matter.

The court issued a notice to the attorney general so that he may clarify the status of the SC proceedings with regard to the PSM and adjourned the hearing until June 23.

The petition stated that the federal government had failed to implement the Economic Coordination Committee’s (ECC) decision of April 24, 2014, in which the final plan was decided to revive the PSM and bring it to achieve 77 per cent of capacity utilisation, constitute proper board of directors and appoint a chief executive officer for properly running the affairs and business of the PSM.

The petitioners said the PSM’s gas supply had been stopped by the Sui Southern Gas Company, leading to the shutting down of the operation of the PSM, its plants and its machinery worth billion of rupees with a plan to completely destroy the PSM.

They said the federal government had refused to execute and implement the agreement with the government of Russia that was willing to help the PSM become a robust and self-sufficient entity.

They added that the Centre also failed to pay the salaries of the PSM’s employees in order to subjugate them, and finally, released the retrenchment plan and expressed its desire for another attempt of privatisation and then terminated all 9,350 employees of the PSM.

They told the court that the ECC had decided to terminate all the employees in an attempt to later privatise the PSM, which was completely inconsistent with the fundamental rights of the employees.

They said that the decision was also went against the Supreme Court’s judgment, adding that privatisation could happen only after the framing of a policy through the Council of Common Interests, so the ECC’s decision was liable to be declared void and ultra vires the constitution.

They also said that the purported action for the retrenchment of the PSM workers was illegal because the retrenchment plan was issued without any lawful authority or jurisdiction. They added that the plan was contradictory to the procedures as set out in the West Pakistan Industrial & Commercial Employment (Standing Order) Ordinance, and that the ECC had acted beyond its jurisdiction by passing the retrenchment plan for PSM workers.

The petitioners claimed that the PSM was deliberately shut down by the federal government with the ultimate design to sell its assets in the market for peanuts. They pointed out that steel continued to be imported at exorbitant rates and the owners of private re-rolling mills benefited from it at the expense of the national exchequer.

They requested the court to declare the proposed plan for the termination of 9,350 PSM employees as unlawful, and the action of the ECC as ultra vires and in violation of the SC judgment in the steel mills case.