KARACHI      -Vice President of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) Pakistan Liaquat Baloch on Sunday demanded of the federal government to immediately withdraw its decision to privatise the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).

He said while speaking during a conference titled ‘Save Pakistan Steel Mills’ at the party’s headquarters in Karachi, Liaquat Baloch said that if the decision was not withdrawn, JI along with the PSM employees’ unions would stage a protest demo at D-Chowk in Islamabad.

He said that the government which was bent on privatizing the PSM should respond as to why it had given billions of rupees in terms of subsidies to sugar industry, flour mills and K-Electric.

He lauded the remarks of PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto over privatization of the PSM and said that all political parties would have to launch a joint struggle against the move. “Both PTI and MQM-P are part of the cabinet that approved the decision to privatise the national institution,” he said and blamed them for committing treachery against the institution and country. He claimed that if handed over to the JI, they could play their role in making the steel mills functional with the support of stakeholders and concerned experts.

The conference also adopted a joint resolution demanding the government to withdraw the decision of its privatization and termination of 9500 employees of the institution.

Experts should be appointed in the steel mills along with the removal of appointees on an ad-hoc basis. A permanent CEO and a professional board of directors should be appointed at the PSM.

The government should also make all those accountable who ruined the national assets along with conducting its performance audit.

Meanwhile, with 48 new cases reported in last two days, around 1022 personnel and officers of Sindh Police have been infected with coronavirus so far, informed spokesman to Sindh Police on Sunday. He said 13 officials lost their battle against COVID-19, out of them 11 belonged to Karachi Range and two from Hyderabad Range of Sindh Police.

Currently 739 officers and personnel are under treatment while 270 have returned to their homes after recovering from the disease.