Speaking at a press conference here on Saturday at the Karachi Press Club the former Senate chairman Raza Rabbani said that they had been receiving alarming reports indicating that a summary had been prepared by the government to retrench the services of some 9350 staffers of the Steel Mills.

Mian Raza Rabbani said that a committee should be constituted comprising concerned members of the National Assembly and Senate to review the decisions regarding the Steel Mills.

He said that any plan to retrench the services of Steel Mills’ employees would be simply unacceptable to them.

He recalled the past statements of Prime Minister Imran Khan and Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar against any move to privatize Steel Mills and downsizing of its employees.

The PPP leader demanded dissolution of the present board of directors of the Steel Mills and instead a new one should be inducted comprising experts of the Metrology Department.

He demanded that any eligible person should be appointed as the chief executive officer of the Steel Mills.

Raza Rabbani said that the confidential agreement, if any, regarding functioning and proposed privatization of the Steel Mills should be presented before the parliament.
He said that labour union and board of directors of the Steel Mills should have been taken into confidence before the decision had been taken to include the PSM in the privatization list of the government.

He said that if in case the government had taken the decision to privatize the Steel Mills then its details should be made public as the federal cabinet alone could not take such a crucial decision.

He said that efforts had also been made in the past during the rule of Pervez Musharraf to sell off the Steel Mills.

To a question, he lamented that most of the people who were part of the probe body constituted to investigate the recent PIA plane air crash in Karachi belonged to the Pakistan Air Force in a situation when the chief of the national flag carrier also belonged to PAF.