‘Save PSM Conference’ calls for withdrawal of sell-off decision

Participants of a conference organised by the Jamaat-e-Islami have demanded that the federal government take back its decision to retrench 9,350 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) as well as stop the privatisation of the PSM and other public enterprises on the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The JI organised the ‘Save PSM Conference’ at Idara Noor-e-Haq, the party’s Karachi secretariat, and it was presided over by Liaquat Baloch, the party’s central general secretary.

The participants appreciated Pakistan Peoples Party chief Bilawal Bhutto Zardari for his party’s strong opposition to the PSM’s privatisation, and they criticised the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan for expressing their support during the federal cabinet meeting for the decision of selling the state institution.

The meeting warned that if the PSM sell-off decision was not taken back, they would use all legitimate means of protest to have it withdrawn.

They said that no past or present government had taken any serious interest in running the national asset, and expressed reservations over the government’s golden handshake scheme for the PSM’s employees. They also asked the federal government to explain the grounds on which the PSM would be privatised.

JI leaders assured the PSM trade union leaders that the party was with the steel mills’ workers in their anti-privatisation campaign. They pointed out that the PSM needs revival, not privatisation. They also warned the government against taking any severe actions such as laying off workers. “Instead, a plan should be devised to make the national entity stand on its own feet.”

Among others, the conference was attended by the JI’s Hafiz Naeemur Rehman, Zahid Askari and Usama Razi, the Peoples Labour Bureau’s Habibuddin Junaidi, the National Labour Federation’s Khalid Khan and Zafar Khan, and PSM trade unions’ Asim Bhatti, Sarwar Niazi, Akbar Narejo, Irshad Bhutto, Ali Haider Gabol, Saleem Gill and Asghar Janjua.