PNSC employees get 40 per cent pay raise

The Minister of Ports and Shipping announces a 40 per cent increase in the salaries of PNSC employees.

KARACHI: The Minister of Ports and Shipping Babar Khan Ghauri has announced a 40 per cent increase in the salaries of Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC) employees along with one and a half bonus.

Speaking at a ceremony hosted by PNSC employees on Monday, he said that organisations under his ministry - the Karachi Port Trust (KPT), PNSC and Port Qasim - were earning profits despite a crisis in the global shipping industry.

He said that five new ships would be inducted into the PNSC fleet within a few months, including two bulk carriers and an oil tanker. He said they would replace cargo ships Chitral and Malakand and the number of PNSC ships would reach 15. Ghauri said that Terminal M-8 of Gwadar Port was scheduled to be completed in 2006, but 50 per cent work was still pending, causing serious difficulties for the importers and exporters. He said that the terminal project was under the communications ministry and the National Highway Authority was working on it.

“We have sent many notices to the relevant ministry, standing committee on communications, National Economic Council and chief minister of Balochistan asking them to get the terminal ready, but all in vain,” he stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 5^th, 2010.