SC restrains govt from selling PSM land

Observes country’s biggest industrial projects land is public property

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has restrained the federal government from selling a piece of land belonging to the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), saying “the land is a public property”. A two-judge bench, comprising Justice Gulzar Ahmed and Justice Maqbool Baqar, made the direction while hearing a case filed by the Ministry of Industries and Production against seizure of its properties by the Sindh High Court (SHC) over not paying salaries, gratuities and other dues of PSM employees. The deputy advocate general

representing the government said the PSM has not sufficient funds to pay salaries and Provident Fund to its employees.  “In view of this situation, the ministry is selling a piece of land owned by the PSM in order to pay outstanding dues of its staffers,” he added. Justice Gulzar Ahmed, who is the senior-most judge of the Supreme Court after the chief justice, said the PSM land is owned by the people and it could not be sold out. He expressed his disappointment over the PSM’s performance and asked why not the apex court should take notice of it. “The PSM's output is zero as it has been ruined by people at the helm to fill their own pockets. The PSM was once a huge institution and hundreds of other steel mills used to operate with its help. Cars, trucks and even rockets were

prepared at the PSM,” he noted. The court later dismissed the government's application against the SHC order to freeze accounts of the Ministry of Industries and Production. The federal government's application was dismissed over withdrawal of a petition by the government in view of the fact that the SHC has also withdrawn its order to attach the ministry’s properties. The hearing was subsequently adjourned for 15 days.

WITH ADDITIONAL INPUT FROM APP

Published in The Express Tribune, November 19^th, 2019.