Industry and Production Minister Hamad Azhar said the government has decided to privatize Pakistan Steel Mills in order to revive and steer it from losses. Speaking today at a news conference in Islamabad, he said fifteen parties have shown interest in the steel mills in Pakistan.
He clarified that only the core operations of the Steel Mills would be privatized, reports Radio Pakistan.
Hammad Azhar said about nine thousand Pakistan Steel Mills employees will be relieved in two phases after payment of their retirement dues and a month’s salary. There will be an amount of 20 billion rupees spent on this package. Each employee will get an average of 2.3 million rupees.
He said that proposal will now be forwarded for approval to the cabinet. The Minister expressed his consternation at the opposition parties’ political point-scoring on the issue. He remembered that the Pakistan Steel Mills was a loss-making enterprise under their system, and was then shut down.
He regretted that the previous governments had made no effort to revive the organization, instead their loan exceeded two hundred billion rupees.
