THE employees of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) on Saturday staged a protest demonstration in Karachi following start of their termination process by PTI government that is aiming to revive the organisation by involving a private investor, most probably an international party. Addressing a news conference, Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar said in the first phase, 4500 employees were being terminated and each on average will be given 2.3 million rupees.
Indeed the termination news has not been received well by public at large. We understand this was not an easy decision on part of the government but had to swallow this bitter pill to revive the PSM, which until 2008 was a profitable organisation. Like any other loss making state enterprise, the PSM is a story of corruption, mismanagement and overstaffing. It has been non-functional since 2015 yet salaries and packages were being paid to employees. This was not sustainable and the government had to take some difficult decision sooner or later. And whether one agrees to it or not but truth is that previous two governments are wholly responsible for current state of affairs of PSM. Had they risen above mere lip service and put the steel mills into operational mode, present government would not have opted for such an extreme step. Over the last two decades, countless visions to turn the PSM around were floated and much has been invested from public money to turn those visions into realities but without achieving any meaningful success. There is no reason for the opposition to make hue and cry now and do politics on this matter. The PSM employees are now paying the price of their collective failures.
Having said so, it is also important for government to realise difficulties of the employees especially at a time when second wave of Covid-19 is wreaking havoc with businesses and livelihoods. The government must go ahead with its privatisation programme but those willing to work with full devotion and dedication must be given a chance and priority to serve in the new setup. The private investor will require workforce to run the PSM and this skilled staff which have necessary experience can prove to be an asset with little bit of investment on their capacity building and training as per modern day requirements.
