Wall of people: Pakistan Steel Mills workers oppose privatisation

Workers of Pakistan Steel Mills threaten to move court in case attempts are made to sell the company.

KARACHI: Workers of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) have opposed the privatisation of PSM and threatened to move court in case attempts are made to sell the strategic asset.

Pakistan Steel Peoples Workers Union Chairman Shamshad Qureshi, while speaking at a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday, said Federal Minister for Privatisation Waqar Ahmed has only presented one side of the picture and proposed privatisation without consulting the board of governors and workers of PSM.

He said that the newly presented formula of selling 20 per cent shares of PSM with administrative powers is not acceptable to the workers. “If privatisation is necessary for the government, then the workers of PSM are ready to buy 26 per cent shares with their own resources,” he stressed.

He questioned the sudden plan to privatise PSM instead of going for its expansion with Chinese or Russian assistance, adding that initially it had not been on the proposed list of privatisation.

Replying to a question, Qureshi said that though PSM has taken money from the government, its position is quite different from Pakistan Railways and other state-run institutions. PSM has returned on time loans acquired from the government so its case is different from other loss-making public sector institutions.

“We hope that Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari will look into the matter and stop the privatisation,” Qureshi added. He said that President Zardari had twice assured him that PSM would not be privatised.

He said that the government had announced a bailout package worth Rs25 billion for PSM, but even after six months the mill has received only Rs3 billion, which substantiates the doubts that some elements deliberately want to see PSM crumble so that it could be sold at throw-away prices.

“PSM is an asset and its privatisation is not at all in favour of Pakistan,” he added. “Since its beginning, PSM has given Rs93 billion in taxes, so there is no ground over which its outsourcing can be justified.”

The union leader criticised the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) for issuing a number of orders that go against the business interests of PSM. He demanded that the government revisit the steel policy to support PSM and make it a profitable organisation once again.

The financial problems of PSM worsened in 2008, when international steel prices rose more than three times on high demand. The sharp increase in prices of raw material hit PSM hard and later it had to sell its steel stocks at lower rates when steel prices suddenly dropped in international markets, he said.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 25^th, 2010.