Daily Times

Sir: The problems faced by our nation due to Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) in the past six years are evidence enough that we need better company laws for Pakistan. Pakistan Steel Mills was running a profit of Rs 2.7 billion in 2007, when it was supplying 20 percent of the nation’s steel. The Musharraf-led government wanted to privatise the company and sell it to an excellent organisation that would have expanded the company, but the workers union of PSM went to court against the privatisation, and shockingly the Sindh High Court reversed the privatisation in a short two day hearing. That’s an amazing record in a country plagued with decades-old court cases. After this, production in PSM went down to 17 percent and is currently down to 2 percent of national output. The PSM had its own power generating plant, but during Karachi’s worst power crisis the company workers refused to use the generators and instead criminally wasted Karachi’s precious energy units. The PSM used all its funding to pay the salaries of its overstaffed 1,900 workers, most of whom also get free homes and other perks. Since 2008, PSM workers have been begging the government for money, while promising to increase production. They have successfully used this tactic to get more than Rs 25 billion from various government departments, every year, totalling a whopping Rs 150 billion in the past six years. To add insult to injury, the PSM has also generated another Rs 270 billion in debts that the government of Pakistan now has to pay. The total bill is Rs 420 billion over six years. Currently the PSM is not producing anything. Every month the company is solvent, but it generates losses in terms of salaries and perks that have to be paid by the government. There is no bankruptcy law that the government can use to dissolve the company. The company is in bad shape to sell or privatise. The past record of PSM workers has proved that any funds pumped into the company will be used to pay old salaries and perks. The huge workforce of 1,900 workers also makes it difficult to downsize, as it can result in protests. I believe the shameful way PSM workers have been wasting the taxpayers money for the past six years proves their insincerity. Therefore they should be dealt with in the same manner. The president should pass a special resolution for ending jobs in loss making government organisations that cannot be overturned by lower or even higher courts. And at the same time laws for company-exit or bankruptcy should also be enacted. The government should not delay acting on PSM because every month the cost of running PSM increases.

SHAHRYAR KHAN BASEER

Peshawar