Revive Pak Steel

This refers to the editorial 'PSM layoffs' (June 5), which has raised valid questions about the laying off of not just 9000 Pakistan Steel employees but families who were already getting much reduced salaries. Regardless of promises made by the PTI on various issues, none of them has seen the light of day and Pakistan Steel is no exception. Will someone explain why the Russian offer of $1 billion made in December 2019 by the Russian trade minister to rehabilitate and upgrade Pakistan Steel was turned down? It is incorrect to suggest that Gen Zia hired more people; in fact during Gen Zia’s time the mill was generating Rs7 to Rs8 billion profit with 18000 employees and 85 percent production capacity. The downfall started when GM Usman Farooqui was appointed chairman by the PPP government and the trend followed.

The PML-N government could have revived the mill but preferred paying employees Rs270 million per month as salary bill for reasons known better to them. The government should renegotiate with Russia for the revival of the only biggest industrial unit of Pakistan spread over 18600 acres; the land alone costs Rs 150 billion. We have trained manpower and retired senior Russian qualified engineers who are willing to work to rehabilitate the closed plant within four months. Lastly, with CPEC projects that would require millions of tons of steel, Pakistan can earn huge profit and save costly foreign exchange to be spent on importing steel for the projects

Mukhtar Ahmed

Karachi