Pakistan Steel

The opposition parties, namely the PML-N and the PPP, are protesting against the government plan to terminate the services of all the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in the wake of its proposed privatization. The irony is that these opposition parties, as well as the PSM Workers' Association, are not demanding the revival of only integrated steelmaking complex of strategic nature. In case the PSM, which is non-operational since June 2015, is revived and put back into operation as committed by the government in recent past, these employees could obviously be retained. But then, both the PML-N and the PPP are responsible for the present state of affairs at the PSM, which was offered for divestment a number of times in the past though without success. Why did these politicians did not voice when billions of rupees were being doled out every year to the PSM employees for their salaries, without their doing any work whatsoever for the past five years?

It is intriguing to note that as on June 30, 2019 the number of PSM employees was 8,884 (2,233 offices and 6,651 workers and staff). But now the government is stating it is 9,350 total employees. Were the 466 employees recruited by the present government for the closed mills?

Hussain Siddiqui

Islamabad