Govt regularises 4,732 Pak Steel employees

KARACHI: The government has regularised services of 4,732 daily-wagers and contractual employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PS) and pledged to provide another bailout package for the struggling steel giant.

The Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani, while distributing regularisation letters to the PS employees on Saturday, said that the government was serious about resolving the issues of workers. He said that bailout packages were a solution to the mill’s financial problems. This would be the second bailout package for the PS from the present government. The first bailout was worth Rs10 billion. Bijarani made it clear that the government would not privatise the steel mills.

“It was difficult to regularise the Pakistan Steel Mills employees with little resources and the weak financial position of the mill, but the government has made a tough decision,” Bijarani added. He asked the labourers to work hard and make the PS a stable industrial unit. PS Chief Executive Officer Malik Israr Hussain said: “This is an important day for our labourers as we got our rights on the world Labour Day.”