Federal Minister for Industries and Production – Hammad Azhar has announced that the government will sell 1,300 acres of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) land.
As per details, the vending of 1,300 acres of PSM land out of the total 19,000 acres, is aimed at countering the continuous financial loss being reported by the mill.
The land being leased is the mills plant area, noted Hammad Azhar.
According to the federal minister, each PSM employee that has been laid off will receive RS 2.3 million. A total of Rs 10 billion will be paid to the employees who have lost their jobs, he said.
Meanwhile, as for now government has paid Rs 92 billion for the bailout, he added.
Hammad Azhar revealed that Rs 750 million are required to pay monthly salary despite the fact that PSM is non-operational.
The development comes as 4,544 PSM employees have been laid off due to severe financial burden on the government.
In response to the criticism regarding people losing their jobs, Hammad Azhar highlighted that it is due to the policies of previous governments that these people have been laid off.
“Let me remind everyone that it was during PPP tenure that PSM went from a profit making entity with billions in bank account to a heavy loss making and bankrupt entity,” he tweeted.
Meanwhile, the sacked PSM employees staged a sit-in at the National Highway, urging the government to take back its decision of laying-off their services.
