Steel mill develops quarries in Balochistan

KARACHI: The Chief Executive Officer Pakistan Steel Mills (PS), Imtiaz Ahmed Khan, has said that the mill has developed its own quarries of iron ore, a basic raw material for steel manufacturing, and Rs500 million will be spent on these projects.

He was speaking to PS employees at an oath-taking ceremony of the executive committee of the Peoples Party Workers’ Union at the mill on Monday.

Development of quarries in Balochistan will not only reduce dependence on imported raw material for steel-making but will also improve supplies, he said.

Test run for local iron ore has already commenced by PS geologists and engineers, he added.

Federal Minister for Labour and Manpower, Khursheed Shah and other leaders of the ruling Pakistan People’s Party said the steel mill will not be privatised as some “rogue elements in the bureaucracy” have been trying to do so in the past.

Shah claimed that the PS has never been running on subsidies and its present financial problems related to the ups and downs in raw material prices and sharp decline in international steel prices last year.

He urged representatives of the Peoples Party Workers’ Union to work hard and make PS a profitable organisation so that critics could stop levelling allegations against this prestigious organisation.

Senator Jahangir Badar said President Zardari and Prime Minister Gilani are both convinced that the PS should be taken out of woods to secure the future of thousands of labourers.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 13^th, 2010.