THE two main opposition parties, namely the Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Peoples Party, are protesting against the government’s plan to terminate the services of all the employees of Pakistan Steel Mills in the wake of its proposed privatisation.

The irony is that these opposition parties, as well as the PSM Workers’ Association, are not demanding the revival of the country’s only integrated steelmaking complex of strategic nature.

In case the PSM — which has been non-operational since June 2015 — is revived and put back into operation as committed by the government in its election promises, a majority of these employees could obviously be retained. But then, both the PML-N and the PPP are responsible for the mills’ present state of affairs.

The steel mills were offered for divestment a number of times in the past though without success. Why did these politicians not raise their voice when billions of rupees were being doled out every year to PSM employees for their salaries, without any work whatsoever for the past five years?

It is intriguing to note that as on June 30, 2019 the number of PSM employees was 8,884 employees (2,233 offices and 6,651 workers & staff). But now the government is stating that PSM has 9,350 employees on its payroll. Were the additional 466 employees recruited by this government in a closed mill?

Hussain Siddiqui

Islamabad

Published in Dawn, June 28th, 2020