‘It was not PSM’s scrap’

With reference to a news report published in this newspaper on June 30, the Pakistan Steel Mills spokesman has said in a statement that the National Industrial Park adjacent to the PSM plant area is constructing a new road for its various industries. During the road construction, two temporary rooms were demolished as per the construction requirements. It is clearly mentioned that neither the road nor the rooms were the PSM’s property.

After the demolition, said PMS spokesman M. Afzal, “the remaining, including Saria etc [was being] taken through a tractor trolley, but when they [people riding in the tractor trolley] entered the PSM area, the security officials asked them for gate passes”, which they did not have.

At this, the PSM officials sent the material along with those persons to the nearby Bin Qasim Police Station, he added.

Nothing happened related to private contractors or metal scrap belonging to the Pakistan Steel Mills, said the spokesman, adding that the PSM security officials cracked the alleged theft and handed over those persons to police.

“No management [person] is involved in any kind of metal scrap theft as all type of inventory has been submitted in the Supreme Court.”

In the June 30 report, the Employees Unity of Pakistan Steel had alleged in a statement that “corruption and theft has reached its peak at the Pakistan Steel Fabricating Company Limited because of the facilitation from the management”.

It said that security officials caught a truck carrying metal scrap worth around Rs10 million out of the premises without any authentication letter and an FIR was lodged with the Bin Qasim Police Station against a private person.