ISLAMABAD: August 17, 2023: The accumulative losses of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC) has gone up to Rs 640 billion and such a huge national loss fell on deaf ears as the decision-makers damn care to plug-off this black hole to stop draining out more tax money . Rather, the authorities, in particular, the secretary Industries and Production (MoI&P) has proposed the government to appoint 17 independent directors to sit on board and wait till complete destruction of this mega industrial unit. It appears the proposal of MoI&P secretary aims at expediting loss-making process and literally turn PSMC into a dead elephant.
All the proposed independent directors, as shown in its notification of MoI&P dated August 8, 2023, have nothing to do with the steel industry as majority of them is from other businesses like selling cloth and toffees, biscuits and coffee etc. Some of them have their brands of fashion.
Here is the list of the proposed ndependent directors. It included Zubair Habib CPLC, Saad Imran Rashid CEO Staple Food (Pvt) Limited, Ms Farah Agha , head of real estate private Equity Fund in UAE, Ali Asghar Jamali of M’s indus Motors, Musadaq Zulqairnain, CEO Interloop Limited, Fatima Sarwar, CEO Shaikh Nooruddin and Sons (Pvt) Limited , Almas Haider of M/s Synthetic Products Enterprises, Farhan Garib CEO Garibsons (Pvt) Limited, Taimour Mukaty CEO Liberty Mills, Saleem Shaikh M/s Sindh Transmission and Dispatch Company, Nadeem Abdullah CE0 Al-Karam Textile Mills, Engr Abdul Jabbar, Hasan Saleem CEO Awan Sports (Pvt) Limited, Khurrum Mukhtar CEO Sadaqat Limited , M Ashfaq CEO M/s Klash (Pvt) Limited and Munsarim Saifullah CEO Ismael Industries.
One wonders as to why the government wants to pick- up food staple man, Indus Motor wala, a sports wala to run highly technical unit like PSMC What is the relevance of these businessmen with steel industry?. Its only MoI&P secretary to solve this mystery. The level of seriousness in running this golden industrial unit of Pakistan could be gauged from only once fact that a chairman of BoDs ran the affairs of PSMC from the US for more than a year. In fact, Amir Mumtaz ran PSMC online. He interviewed candidate for higher positions from US on Skype. It can happen in only Pakistan.
PSMC is a golden asset of Pakistan. It remained a profit-making entity whenever it got an honest top man. Then it dropped in the hand of a Karachi-based mafias which worked through so called elected governments that came into the powers since 2008. Since 2005 these mafias led by a leading brokers’ house made several attempts to buy PSMC.
Pakistan People Party (PPP) founder leader and ex prime minister , Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, gave this gift to Karachi. Unfortunately, his party took a leading role in damaging it. It developed multi-faceted mafias like Riaz Lalgee and others to make money at the cost of this prestigious mill. Then Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN) did the rest job to destroy PSMC in its rule. Imran Khan’s rule did what was left by PPP and PMLN to ruin PSMC. His ‘Economic wiezard’, Asad Umar, promised to revive the mill, but he too fell to the broker house’s mafia hand and got silenced on the issue. The audit reports suggest that by June 2022, PSMC accumulative losses touched Rs 640 billion mark and each passing day is adding to its loss. The question arises why the rulers want to ruin PSMC?
All the BODs and CEOs from 2008 to date remained unaccountable except Mueen Aftab Shaikh (he was sacked on corruption charges by the then Prime Minister Syef Yousaf Raxa Gillani at the floor of National Assembly on 18 August 2009 and directed to FIA for Investigation. He was exonerated from all the cases registered by FIA and NAB) despite complaints.
MOI&P discriminated in applying the clauses of Memorandum of Associations against the predecessors and successors of Mueen Aftab Sheikh. MOI&P mostly appointed men of choice not knowing the functions of integrated steel plant and never monitored their performance negatively cost to PSM/Public Exchequer and Economy.
Stakeholders chairman, Mumraiz Khan, is fighting against organized mafia that ruined PSMC over the years. He spoke to this correspondent by phone from Karachi on the subject in hand. He said “ PSMC is undoubtedly a great asset and a tool to make Pakistan self-sufficient in steel demand but unfortunately its being ruined by powerful mafias through greedy rulers”. He claimed that PSMC can be revived and turned into a profit-making entity in very limited time provided its management is handed over to professionals. The stakeholders chairman said the plundering of the Steel mill was going on in the supervision of the federal government.
Mr Khan demanded independent accountability to fix up those who turned PSMC into a loss-making entity in the last 15 years.
