National Assembly's Standing Committee on Industries and Production has recommended for sending a reference to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to investigate the beneficiaries of the Pakistan Steel Mills closure. A meeting of the standing committee chaired by Asad Umar on Wednesday recommended to the Ministry of Industries and Production that a reference must be sent to the NAB within seven days. In the reference, the NAB should be asked to probe why SNGPL suspended supply of gas to the PSM in 2015 and why no action was taken against the person who ordered it.
The committee has also recommended to the NAB to find out why the situation was allowed to continue as it has been since 2015, and if it was because of some kind of collusion between the government and private sector to benefit the commercial importers and local industry, which was getting tariff benefits due to closure of PSM.
Qaiser Ahmed Sheikh has also remarked that matter goes into billion of rupees due to discontinuation of production, increasing PSM liabilities and more importantly an increase in imports of steel products is causing impact on foreign exchange reserves.
The committee members stated that the government has been paying Rs 40-50 million salary bills on monthly basis without taking any work from the workers. Additionally, it was also pointed out that the markup amount is also rising. Asad Umar said the committee also suggested some recommendations to the government on PSM but no one is paying any heed to them. He said the committee is completely clueless what the government thinks regarding PSM.
The committee chairman stated in January 2017, Privatization Commission promised that it will bring a comprehensive plan for PSM in a month but it never turned up. Then there was the Chinese proposal of investment to revamp the PSM but no one knows what happened to that proposal and others. "We have suggested to the government to hand over PSM to defence institution but we did not receive any response. All this reflects nothing but disinterest of the government in revival of the PSM for unknown reasons," he said.
He also revealed that he recently received a video showing that PSM scrap was being dumped outside the jurisdiction of the mill and from there it was being ferried through private trucks to somewhere else. Asad Umar said the PSM was in profit till 2007 and was also paying off its loans, however, the PSM has been in losses after 2007. "We have been hearing that Frontier Works Organization (FWO) is interested in PSM but the committee got no official word on it," he said. The chairman of the committee regretted that the government is not coming up with any decision about the PSM.
The committee also expressed its concerns over non-payment of salaries and pension to the employees of the PSM and recommended that the Ministry of Industries and Production must ensure release of salaries and pension to the PSM employees. Those who attended the meeting include Qaiser Ahmad Sheikh, Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, Chaudhry Riaz-ul-Haq, Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, Sajida Begum, Abdul Hakeem Baloch, Alhaj Shah Jee Gul Afridi, and Iftikhar-ud-Din.