By Asad Cheema
ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Economy Watch (PEW) Brig (Retd) Aslam Khan has alleged that some political forces were opposing the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) for political benefits but it should be sold
without delay as it has wasted almost Rs500 billion and there is no chance that it will ever become a profitable company.
He said that the PSM is closed for five years but its 9500 employees are getting salaries on the cost of poor masses. Brig (Retd) Aslam Khan said that the former governments used this institution to accommodate political workers while appointing management on political bases which has ruined this organization beyond repair.
Keeping in view the experience of the PSM the government should also sell all the bleeding enterprises as the economy is on the brink while international institutions are not lending enough money, he added. The chairman PSM said the previous governments of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) could neither revive nor privatize the mills and now they are opposing the move to sell it which is amazing.
He informed that the PSM owes its deterioration to frequent losses, corruption, debts and poor management while the accumulated losses of the state-owned enterprises had exceeded the annual defense budget outlay as the previous visionless governments are responsible for it.
