KARACHI: A petition was filed in the Sindh High Court (SHC) on Monday against the privatisation of the loss-making Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), which is on the cards for a long time now, and the termination of its remaining 9,350 employees.
The petition, filed by PSM Labour Union President Asim Bhatti, has nominated the federal government and Ministry of Industries and Production as respondents.
Bhatti contended that the mills, once a major revenue contributor to the national exchequer, went into deficit due to wrong administrative policies and business practices of the previous governments, adding that its employees stand absolved of the charge of pushing the country’s largest steel producer into the loss-making machines it is today.
“The incumbent government did not take any step to revive the mills and instead terminated the jobs of its remaining employees tp privatise the national asset,” he stated in the petition.
Bhatti urged the high court to stop the federal government from privatising the mills and sacking of its employees.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on May 13 had agreed in principle for retrenchment of maximum staff in the light of Supreme Court verdicts and observations under the civil petition (326-K & 513-K of 2018) and had asked the Ministry of Industries and Production to resubmit a proposal after reformulating the scope to all employees.
In a summary submitted subsequently, the ministry had said that through a privatisation process, the government wanted to revive the PSM, and added that an oversized and aged human resource was one of the main obstacles. Technical Advisory Consortium was carrying out due diligence on different aspects including the human resource of mills before suggesting a suitable mode of transaction.
