Deficit-Ridden Pakistan Steel Mills Sacked Employees

WEB DESK: As many as 4,544 employees of Pakistan Steel Mills, the only public sector steel maker in the country, have been sacked.

The dismissed employees include Group II, III and IV employees as well as Junior Officers, Assistant Managers, and Divisional Managers.

Recently, Pakistan Steel Mills workers staged a protest against the dismissals.

Protesters even set ablaze tyres and blocked the National Highway.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had, earlier, promised 10 million jobs before coming to power.

However, it is rightly said gravity of a situation can only be scrutinized when a bad situation comes to the surface. Perhaps, such is the situation being faced by PTI comes into power.

The company has long been labeled as a “white elephant” that remained uncontrollable to plunge into deficit despite chains of bailouts.

The steel mills, built in 1973 at a cost of Rs 25 billion, generated profits in the 80s and 90s. However, it has been in deficit since 2009.

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar on July 15 reported that the company’s deficit had mounted to Rs.225 billion.

It was shut down in the year 2015 during the PML-N regime and institutional restructuring has become inevitable to pull the institution out of trouble.

Earlier in 2008, the PPP had allegedly done political recruitments in the company.

Even today there are four to five people working on a single position.

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In 2006, during the rule of former President Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan Steel Mills privatization case reached the Supreme Court (SC).

At that time, the company was generating profits and several companies agreed to own it. However, former Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry ruled against the steel manufacturer’s privatization.

According to Hamad Azhar, the steel mills will now run with private partners, but surely will not be privatized.