Opposition wants PSM deal cancelled

All the major opposition parties including Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Muttahidda Majlis-i-Amal, Pakistan Muslim League (N) and the government's crucial coalition partners Muttahidda Qaumi Movement have demanded cancellation of the controversial sale of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).
The PPPP, MMA & PML (N) moved a combined adjournment motion in the National Assembly on Monday to discuss the entire privatisation policy of the present government with particular reference to the recent sale of the country's only integrated steel mills set up with the Soviet assistance in 1984.
Talking to Business Recorder, the mover of the motion and MMA leader Liaquat Baloch accused the government of selling the nation's assets at throwaway prices and compromising on vital national interests.
He alleged that the government was not taking Parliament into confidence while taking decisions of grave national importance and its process of privatisation was neither transparent nor above board.
He said that if came to power, the opposition parties would review all the privatisation deals of the present government and protect rights of the workers and consumers. "What the nation has got out of the privatisation of cement units and sugar mills other than the price hike, unemployment and poverty that the government should sell the steel mills in such a hurry," he questioned.
Spokesmen of PPPP, Farhatullah Babar and PML (N) Siddiqul Farooq said that ARD was not against the policy of privatisation but PSM has been sold at a throwaway price, rights of the workers and employees have been ignored and the privatisation process lacked transparency.
In a joint statement, MQM members of the National Assembly, without whose support the present government cannot survive, have condemned the PSM sale deal as anti-workers and against the national interest.
They said that the deal has been executed without taking representatives of the workers into confidence at a throwaway price of Rs 21.68 billions whereas the analysts were expecting a price of Rs 100 billion plus.
The MQM MNAs demanded of President General Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to cancel the deal, make the process of privatisation transparent and above board, and ensure protection of jobs of the workers.
However the privatisation commission maintains that it followed a completely transparent process for the privatisation of PSMC and the value of $362 million received from the highest bidder for a 75 percent equity stake reflects the value of PSM.