KARACHI
Country’s mother of steel industries, Pakistan Steel Mills, is unable to pay salaries to its workers for last four months despite bailout package announced by the Federal government for the betterment of national asset.
The highly profitable Pakistan Steel Mill accommodating at least 16,000 employees suffers miserable circumstance because of financial crunch and could not even pay the salaries to the workers for last three month.
Pakistan Steel Mills where job had been considered as an achievement couple of years ago, witnessed a proportional decline in progress and now workers feared about their future.
Zafar Khan General Secretary Pakistan Steel Labour Union (PASLU) said employs are facing severe financial problems because the salaries of three month still due and it is not possible for a salary person to manage the schooling of children and kitchen expense without a salary of a single month.
He said authorities have been trying to portray that the industry has become a burden for the economy of the country and creating a way out to privatise PSM for their personal lucrative interests. He informed that the land mafia has had encroached hundreds of acres of land of PSM with support of management and local stakeholders.
He said that culprits responsible for such circumstances remained free and authorities seem reluctant to deal the beneficiaries with iron handed, who looted Pakistan Steel Mills and shifted all burden on employees.
The total land of PSM is 19000 acres where 4500 acres used for plant and 1200 acres for Steel Town and Gulshan-i-Hadeed.
He informed that most of the investors have eagle eye on this prime location where mostly land has encroached for private housing schemes which was announced just few months earlier. The only way to make the PSM profitable institution is to bring back the looted money of PSM, on the other side the cheap tactics being used by management is to bring down the stamina of employees to sell PSM on cheaper rates.
On the basis of anonymity, a PSM employ informed that senior and corrupt officials of PSM are not willing to facilitate the employees. The management also demanded to the government for further financial support of Rs 12 billion which is excluded from the bailout package, he added. It is also pertinent to mansion here that the management continuously receiving installments of bailout package announced by the government but not paying salaries since last three months.
Comprising on two blast furnaces, PSM is using only one for production which has also started after a gap of month in November.
The other blast furnace would be operational in next few days but no security measures were seen to protect the staff because no one guarantees the response of blast furnace.
Sources said that 30 years old production plants installed by the Russians are misused and the inexperienced, corrupt senior officials criminally destroyed this national asset. No proper maintenance was done, capital and planned repair work were also neglected and nobody knows that where heavy budgets of repair go.
PSM senior officials are mainly responsible for this disaster as they enjoyed the privileges of being heads of different production plants, he added.