Sindh conditionally agrees to PSM sell-off

Sindh government has no objection to the so-far-disputed privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) if the federation safeguards the interest of labourers. The apparently flexible statement came from Finance Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah during the German Unity day celebrated by German Consulate here Monday. "Only if it safeguards the interest of labourers," Shah told Business Recorder on the sidelines of the event.
He was responding to a query on Pakistan People''s Party-ruled Sindh''s stance toward the federal government''s plan to sell the loss-making Pakistan Steel off.
The minister said: "We oppose any privatisation [of PSM] that harms the interest of labourers". Job security, Shah replied when asked to elaborate on the word interest. A PSM official says more than 15,000 employees were concerned about their job security post sell-off. At the same time, he said a cash-strapped Mills, for last few years, had not been able to pay salaries to its workers. "The federal government pays our salaries," said the official, requesting anonymity.
The PSM, which he said was set up on July 2, 1968 as a "mother industry" to help the country''s 46 other engineering entities flourish, had faced an accumulative loss of Rs 125 billion during the last seven years. In FY09, the official recalled, this figure stood at Rs 26.5 billion. "The official claimed that about 9-10 months ago when the Centre had revealed its plan to privatise the white elephant, Chief Minister Sindh Syed Qaim Ali Shah had publicly announced that PSM be handed over to his government.
"Now they say we never have asked for PSM''s handover," the official wondered. Responding to it, Finance Minister Shah said: "I came to know about the matter only through media reports. I know nothing about it. The related departments I consulted say the idea may have come through informal channels".
To run an entity like Pakistan Steel, he said, was not his government''s job. The provincial government is reported to have warned the center that it would cancel the lease of PSM land if the state-run steelmaker is sold off to a private entity. "Our claim is on the land," Shah told Business Recorder. Sindh government, the finance minister said, had given its land to the federation and, if PSM is privatised, the "buyer would have to pay us the market price of the land".