Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Board of Directors which met with Fazal Ullah Qureshi in the chair here on Tuesday, decided to give a detailed presentation to the Finance Minister, Senator Ishaq Dar on financial woes of the entity. "We are requesting the government to decide the future of the mills. Either approve a bailout package or privatise it because financial conditions of the mills are highly unstable," said one of the participants.
He said that its time for the government to decide the fate of loss making entity, adding that if the government opts for privatisation, the process will take one and half year. During this period, the government has to bear even the financial burden of employees' salaries.
When contacted, Chairman of the Board confirmed that a presentation is being given to the Finance Minister soon after Eid-Ul-Fitr. Earlier, the Ministry of Production had recommended three options, which are as follows;(i) PSM may be privatised but this option cannot be exercised due to Supreme Court decision; (ii) PSM may be closed. This option may have following repercussions; over 15,000 people will become jobless, a law and order situation may arise; the import bill of iron & steel products will rise resulting in additional burden on foreign exchange reserves; and (iii) PSM may be revitalised.
In case of privatisation, government has to approach the Supreme Court for withdrawal of the review petition filed on August 8, 2006 in the Supreme Court against its decision to strike down PSM privatisation. In the second phase, government will have to get nod of Council of common Interest (CCI) and then federal cabinet.
Replying to another question, he said that PEO Production PSM Wasif Mehmood is being given the charge of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of PSM. Answering to another question, Fazal Ullah Qureshi said that three members of the Board ie Engineer Jabbar Memon, Mirza Islam Baig and Mehreen Bhutto are being taken back on board in the light of Supreme Court's decision.
Ministry of Industries has recently terminated the services of Saadat Cheema, Acting CEO PSM, who is being praised for his professional competence. M. Saadat S. Cheema was handed over additional charge of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) on July 19, 2013 as CEO. During short stay of just 10 days he worked quite hard in order to solve the problems of PSM up to some extent, although 10 days are not enough to change the destiny of such a big organisation, which is already in a very bad shape.
M. Saadat S Cheema with his untiring efforts resolved the foremost issue of electricity of PSM which was disconnected by Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) due to non payment of dues. In just 36 hours M. Saadat S. Cheema was able to resolve the matter with KESC and the supply of electricity was restored.
Not only he was able to get the electricity supply restored, but was able to make it possible to start extra 30MW electricity production for PSM which is one of the prime achievements in such a short period, said an official of PSM. PSM has written to GOP for the bailout package, but they haven't received any amount from the government to pay the salaries to the employees of PSM. However, M Saadat S Cheema announced to give salaries of a month to 10,000 employees without any help from the Government or any other Competent Authority. It is pertinent to mention here that the PSM management has to pay Rs 7,000 to each employee against two and a half months salary from its own resources.
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