Senate body questions logic: government's PSE approach skewed against PSM?

The Senate Standing Committee on Finance has questioned the logic of providing support to all the public sector enterprises except Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) which has been non-operational for more than one year. A meeting of the Senate Standing Committee on Finance presided over by Senator Saleem Mandviwalla wanted to about the latest status of PSM from the officials of Privatisation Commission on Friday. The chairman of the committee said that PSM has been non-operational for more than one year and it should not continue like this.
He added the government is providing billion of rupees support to the PIA and other public sector enterprises (PSEs) but seems uncertain whether to restructure or privatise the PSM. The secretary privatisation said there is an issue of asset disposal of the company because the PSM has liabilities on various heads. He said he has recently assumed the charge of the PC; he is not in a position to give accurate picture about current status of the PSM. He said he would be in a position to give a briefing to the committee after properly studying the status of the corporation.
Upon this, the committee decided to taka a briefing from the PC on the current status of the PSM. The committee chairman and members stated, "We have a very bad experience of Privatisation Commission on the issue of Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) as no one was able to justify the failed transaction." The proposed law seeks a 10-year punishment and at least Rs 10 million penalty for those involved in money laundering.
Secretary Finance Tariq Bajwa said that in the existing law, there is a punishment from one year to 10 years and a financial penalty of Rs 0.1 million. The committee noted that the law has been passed only one year ago and there is only one conviction so far under the law. He said that as people in the country hardly consider money laundering a crime so the implementation of the law is already difficult, and requested that the amendment may be withdrawn. Azam Swati withdrew his amendment to the AML on the request of the committee chairman. Chief Statisticians Asif Bajwa was unable to explain the reasons when the committee members asked him about a significant increase in expenditure of the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS).