‘Heartless’: Bilawal Bhutto slams PTI govt for sacking Pakistan Steel Mills employees
Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar says PSM "became bankrupt entity during PPP's tenure"
November 28, 2020
KARACHI: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Saturday lashed out at the “heartless” PTI government for sacking over 4,500 employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and vowed to restore them once his party is in power.
The PPP supremo was reacting to the removal of thousands of the PSM workers who were laid off by the government in order to revive the industrial unit.
“The heartless government’s sacked 4500 workers of Pakistan Steel mills. PPP will return each and everyone back to work,” Bilawal Bhutto tweeted.
Read more: Pakistan Steel Mills provided Rs58bn since 2008-2009 in bailout packages: SC told
Terming their sacking an “economic murder”, he said the land of this historical industrial asset belongs to the people of Sindh.
“We will not let the PTI get away with this economic murder,” he said and added: “sack Imran not workers.”
On Friday, the PSM sacked 4,544 of employees, including the divisional and assistant managers.
The management confirmed that officials belonging to category 2,3, and 4 pay groups have been dismissed from their jobs.
Read more: Govt approves Rs11.44 bln to pay dues of retired PSM employees
The PSM spokesperson had stated that dismissal letters have been sent to sacked employees by post.
However, he clarified that corporate secretaries of departments have been fired neither have the staff working in schools and colleges been let go.
PSM became 'bankrupt entity during PPP tenure'
Responding to Bilawal's statement, Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar sought to "remind everyone that it was during the PPP tenure that PSM went from a profit making entity with billions in bank account to a heavy loss making and bankrupt entity".
Azhar said that during PPP's rule, the mills' capacity was brought down to 40% and then when PML-N came into power, it was shut down in 2015.
Govt decides to privatise PSM
Earlier this month, Azhar said that the government had decided to privatise the PSM as it had become a burden on the national exchequer.
He said that PSM employees had not been working for the last many years and now they would get a financial package of around Rs2.3 million per employee as compensation. Besides, he said, employees could also contribute to productivity in the private sector.
He said that at one stage, the PSM had 30,000 employees out of which many employees had retired and now an estimated 9,000 employees were working for the mill. He said the PSM was closed for the last five years and previous governments could not devise any plan for it.
The minister said that the government had to spend Rs55 billion to pay salaries to employees of a closed mill. He said when the PTI government came into power, the Pakistan Steel Mills was facing a loss of Rs176 billion and its interest was also increasing with each passing day.
Azhar said that the previous governments could not handle this issue, therefore, the present government had to take the final decision about the fate of the mill in the larger interest of the country.
