Supreme Court questions federal govt’s plan of reviving PSM

Hearing adjourned for one month

ISLAMABAD:

The Supreme Court on Thursday questioned the federal government's plan for the revival of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and said such a plan can 'only be fatal'.

A three-member judge bench, presided by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Gulzar Ahmed, heard the case related to non-functioning of PSM. He noted that the federal government cannot remove all PSM employees otherwise it would face five thousand cases.

Additional Attorney General Chaudhry Amir Rehman stated that Cabinet did not decide regarding the removal of all PSM employees. Advocate Nayyar Rizvi appeared on behalf of the PSM Board.

CJP Ahmed again sought a comprehensive report regarding the revival of the steel mill. The hearing of the case has been adjourned for a month.

Today’s hearing evolved around PSM's revival plan in view of the apex court’s March 12 order wherein it wondered that when the steel mills itself is not operating or producing anything, then why are the employees employed and from where are they being paid for, including their emoluments and other benefits.

The court asked the federal government to attend all these affairs.

Later, in compliance with the court order, the federal government submitting a report and informed the SC that it constituted an expert group in 2018 with an object to inviting professional recommendations for the revival of PSM.

The group primarily recommended that the government should establish a public-private partnership to raising the necessary capital investment and obtaining technical expertise for the revival of PSM.

It also recommended that the government should appoint a technical advisory consortium (TAC) to design an appropriate public-private partnership structure after ensuring a transparent international competitive bidding process to select a preferred bidder and propose and implement the liability settlement plan.

The report revealed that a financial adviser has been appointed and working in collaboration with the Privatization Commission.

On April 16, the PSM board of directors approved a human resource retrenchment plan that was presented before the ECC of the federal cabinet.

The ECC directed the PSM to re-submit the proposal after reformulating it with consultation of the PSM management so that its scope could be extended to the maximum number of the steel mills employees along with disbursement and payment plan.

Later, the PSM with the approval of its board of directors shared revised human resource rationalization plan to retrench 100 per cent workforce.

The ECC on June 3 approved this plan with direction that payment to the PSM employees shall be contingent upon the decision of the apex court.

“The payment calculated by the PSM shall be final once and for all and shall not accrue any further liability against the government of Pakistan and the PSM in this regard,” the report stated.