Thieves continue to steal from Steel Mills

Total losses, liabilities of Pakistan Steel Mill exceeded Rs612 billion

KARACHI:

As the series of theft cases continues in Pakistan Steel Mill, the three-layered security of the Steel Mill failed to curb the theft incidents.

On Saturday night, a gang of thieves stole copper wire and parts worth millions of rupees. Reportedly, the thieves were active around the main plant of the mill for several hours. They were caught while escaping from the area.

The event raised a question about the security of the Pakistan Steel Mill that how come the security failed to stop the thieves from entering?

Similarly, on September 5, a group of thieves were also caught on the premises of the Mill.

Sources said that in most cases the administration does not file the report on theft cases.

Also, the FIRs were not filed against the suspects caught in both theft cases.

Earlier, Express Tribune had identified the systematic thefts of Rs 10 billion in the Pakistan Steel Mill. The investigation into the theft of material and scrap worth billions of rupees were entrusted to FIA, while the Steel Mill officers, allegedly involved in the theft, were not removed from the posts.

Moreover, their administration put the debris of the thefts on the engineer who marked the theft of 10 billion rupees, in the Senate Standing Committee. Engineer Abdur Rahman was dismissed from his job as punishment for identifying the theft.

The stakeholder groups, such as the People's Workers Union, Progressive Labour Union and Insaf Labour Union (CBA) in the mill informed the Federal Ministry of Industry and Production, CEO Dr Saif-ud-din Junejo and the Privatisation Division regarding the situation. They informed them that the total value of losses and liabilities of Pakistan Steel Mill has exceeded 612 billion rupees.

Pakistan's economy suffered a loss of 12 billion dollars from 2005 to 2022, due to the losses and non-production of Steel Mill.

Qualified management and board could not be appointed in Pakistan Steel Mill to date, which has brought Pakistan Steel to the verge of collapse.

The Federal Ministry of Industry and Production was also informed the current coalition government is also not offering serious conduct to investigate the theft of billions of rupees.

During the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, retired persons were appointed to the key positions of Pakistan Steel Mill on contract and daily wages while the same people were named in the report of theft of billions of rupees with administrative negligence, corruption and irregularities, but no action was taken against them.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2022.