Raza Rabbani says federal cabinet has no power to decide on PSM’s privatisation

Former Senate chairman and Pakistan Peoples Party central leader Mian Raza Rabbani on Saturday said the federal cabinet had no powers to decide on privatisation of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and it had also not taken the Council of Common Interests (CCI), a relevant constitutional body, on board in this regard.

He was addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club. Former PSM union chairman Shamshad Qureshi and Peoples Labour Bureau’s Habibuddin Junaidi accompanied him.

Rabbani demanded that the government close down the Privatisation Commission and abandon its plans to privatise the PSM.

Describing the privatisation plans of the federal government as outsourcing the country’s economic management to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), he said the federal cabinet had exceeded its constitutional power by including the PSM on the privatisation list.

He also demanded that the terms of the agreement signed between Pakistan and the IMF in 1988 regarding the privatisation of state enterprises be made public and then annulled through Parliament.

Rabbani said the incumbent federal government had no clear policy about the PSM. He asked the government to appoint an honest and competent CEO on merit in the organisation and remove unconcerned people from its board.

Before coming into power, Prime Minister Imran Khan during his visit to the PSM had also opposed the organisation’s privatisation, he recalled.

He added that the Supreme Court had also restrained the government from the privatisation of the PSM since Pervez Musharraf’s tenure.