All the opposition political parties except Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) on Monday staged a token walkout from Senate against the proposed privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), warning the government of dire consequences. Speaking on a point of order, Senator Raza Rabbani of Pakistan People's Party (PPP) said that on the dictation of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the government was hell-bent to privatise 68 state-owned institutions.
"This is writing on the wall that all the decisions regarding privatisation are being taken on the dictations of IMF, which, we will not allow," he maintained. The only excuse, he added, under which the government is taking the decision, is laying off 5000 employees, who were regularised during PPP's government. "These people have given their sweat and blood and had been working with PSM on daily wages and contract basis for the last several years and belong to different political parties...any step to privatize the entity will be tantamount to guillotine of labourers," he added.
He said that the PSM employees were not given wages for the last three months, adding that a bailout package, agreed in a meeting chaired by finance minister Ishaq Dar, when PML-N took over, should be given along with the pending salaries. Responding to Rabbani's concerns, Minister for Industries and Production Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi said that the government was planning to privatise only 26 percent shares of PSM. After the privatisation process no employee of PSM, he added, will be sacked because major share of the Mills will remain with the government.
Raja Zafarul Haq, leader of the house in Senate, also rejected the impression, saying that IMF has not set any condition such as privatisation of PSM for loans. "This is not privy to us all that the entity [PSM] is running on deficit, badly affecting the overall economy of the country...in such a situation, recovery of PSM is not possible," he said. He also claimed that PSM privatisation was not meant to benefit anybody as the decision was taken by Senate Standing Committee on Industries during PPP government, where members from all the parties were onboard.
IMMIGRATION BILL Senator Maula Bakhsh Chandio introduced a bill titled "The Emigration (Amendment) Bill‚ 2013", which provides for amending the Immigration Ordinance, 1979. The bill was referred to the concerned Standing Committee of the house.
JUDGES APPOINTMENT Speaking on a motion regarding appointment of superior court judges, Senator Farhatullah Babar stressed the need for making the judges' appointment process transparent. He said that the appointment of judges had always been controversial, which must be done in a way where no individual or institution would be in a position to influence the procedure for appointment.
Leader of the opposition in Senate Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan said that the parliament as a supreme body must play its due role in making appointment of superior court judges' foolproof, adding that sanctity of the house should not be violated.
JOURNALISTS' WALKOUT The journalists covering the proceedings of Senate also staged walkout from the press gallery against the alleged attack on journalists in Karachi by MQM activists. They said that their colleagues in Karachi were getting threatening calls that they would be made example like Wali Khan Babar - a TV journalist who was brutally killed in Karachi some years back.
They warned that if anything happened to their colleagues in Karachi, they would hold the MQM directly responsible. The irony of the matter was that following the walkout, Senator Mushahid Hussain, Rana Tanveer, minister for defence production and Zahid Hamid, minister for Science and Technology came to the press gallery and went back to raise the issue in the house. But after murmuring something into ears of MQM members, they did not take up the matter in the house. The house was adjourned to meet again on Tuesday.
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