KARACHI: The Federal Ministry of Industry and Production on Saturday constituted an 8-member committee to revive the Pakistan Steel Mills. According to the official notification, the committee headed by the Federal Secretary of Industry and Production includes the Additional Secretary of Industry and Production, Senior Member of the Board of Revenue Sindh, Joint Secretary of Finance, the CEO of PIDC, and representatives of the Worker Union of Steel Mills and two independent board members of the steel mills, including the Director Technical and Corporate Secretary.

The committee will review the plan to shut down the steel mills and auction off its plants and machinery.

The committee will also explore options to revive Pakistan steel mills with the cooperation of the private sector.

Forced layoffs, gas supply cut: PSM employees to hold protest today

It is pertinent to mention here that the then-caretaker government removed Pakistan Steel Mills from its privatisation list of state-owned entities.

The government issued a new list of state-owned entities (SOEs) that was handed over to the private sector under its privatization program. Overall, 26 SoE will be privatized under the ongoing government program including four institutions each in the financial and real estate sectors.

In a statement the then Caretaker Minister for Privatisation Fawad Hasan Fawad had said that the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) is a dead horse that cannot be privatised.

“The amount of Rs2,542 billion was spent on the state-owned entities from 2018 to 2019, whereas, the financial losses to the institutions in 2020 were equivalent to 7% of GDP.

The financial losses of the state-owned entities have further increased now,“ he added.