With the government approving retrenchment of all 9,350 remaining employees of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) with a one-time severance cost of about Rs20 billion, an old video of now Federal Minister for Planning, Development, Reforms and Special Initiatives Asad Umar has come back to haunt the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) on Wednesday approved firing all employees of the PSM, reasoning that the mills haven’t been functioning for years and the employees haven’t been doing anything.
There are 9,150 employees who will be fired within a month and another 250 will be let go within three months. The ECC meeting, chaired by Prime Minister’s (PM) Adviser of Finance and Revenue Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, also approved a Rs20 billion package for the employees, which amounts to Rs2.3 million per person.
As the decision made headlines, mixed reactions were drawn. While some lauded the government’s ‘full and final’ human resource rationalisation plan for the PSM employees in accordance with the judgments and observations of the Supreme Court (SC), others criticised the same for leaving thousands unemployed.
Amid war of words on social and mainstream media, an old video of then opposition member Asad Umar resurfaced, wherein he was seen garnering the support of PSM employees by vowing to stand by them if the PTI is elected to power. The undated video is said to be from the tenure of former ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), during which PSM was shut down after becoming a burden on the national exchequer under the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).
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“Record this so that you can embarrass me by showing me this video if I backtrack on my promise. If PTI comes to power and PSM employees are deprived of their rights, I won’t be standing with the PTI government, but will be supporting PSM employees instead,” Asad can be heard as saying in the video that is doing rounds over the internet as netizens troll him for “taking a U-turn”.
Meanwhile, opposition parties are also criticising the government for its decision.
Though the mills have been closed for years, they are running a Rs550 billion deficit and billions are being spent on debt servicing. However, the move will not be finalised until it is approved by the federal cabinet.
Reports said that PSM stopped its commercial operations in June 2015 without formulating any human resource plan for its 14,753 employees, now reduced to 9,350. Presently, the per month net salary bill of PSM employees is approximately Rs350 million, adjusted as a loan in the financial accounts of PSM. Since 2013, an aggregate loan of Rs34 billion has been extended to PSM by the government on account of net salary payment.
