Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) Board will meet on Saturday (today) in Islamabad to consider the name of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Mill as three candidates have been short-listed for approval, official sources told Business Recorder.
To be presided over by Fazal Ullah Qureshi, Chairman of the Board, the meeting will also discuss performance of the mill which has declined from 82 percent in 2007-08 to 22 percent in July 2011 and is functioning in billions of rupees loss. A committee has interviewed a number of candidates for this slot of CEO, but three names have been finalised to be placed before the Board for approval.
The Board is also considering reinstatement of Brigadier Abdul Qayyum (retired) who was in jail and facing disciplinary proceedings on corruption charges. Presently, PSM is facing a loss of billions of rupees due to its below capacity performance. According to an insider, the situation has worsened after the new Board took over its affairs.
A couple of days ago, the federal cabinet allowed the Ministry of Production to start negotiations with Russian Federation for expansion of corruption hub PSM, which has production capacity of 1.1 million tons with extendable design capacity of three million tons per year. A plant of capacity similar to PSM is generally considered as sub-economic. This necessitated planning for expansion of PSM since its inception in 1981. Several efforts were made in this regard but unfortunately no progress was made. Moreover, after completion of 29 years of service of life 1st category repairs of major equipment like 'blast furnace' of PSM is also due, which is generally undertaken after 25 years of service. First category repairs will enhance the plant efficiency, increasing production capacity by 20 percent.
According to official documents President Asif Ali Zardari visited the Russian Federation on May 11-13, 2011 and two rounds of talks on enhancing bilateral co-operation in the fields of mutual interest were held between the President of Pakistan and President of Russian Federation.
During these talks enhanced co-operation between the two countries for Balancing, Modernisation, Revamping and Expansion (BMRE) and capacity expansion of PSM was also agreed upon. Ministry of Production has been directed to accelerate negotiations with the counterpart Ministry of Russian Federation to finalise modalities with regards to the BMRE and capacity expansion of PSM, prior to " Quadrilateral Summit" to be held in September, 2011 where the President of Pakistan and Russian Federation are expected to meet.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.