ISLAMABAD: Moving swiftly to implement the prime minister’s orders, the government has reconstituted the board of directors of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and convened its urgent meeting next week to allocate about 1,500 acres of land for the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) amid opposition by the Sindh government.

The board was dissolved soon after the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz came to power in 2013. Since then the country’s largest industrial complex continued to operate without a statutory supervision and with a broken down management structure and the mill kept piling up its losses and liabilities.

The board meeting was originally scheduled for March 7 but some nominees are reported to have shown reluctance to take up critical issues so quickly. Some of them were dropped and the board meeting was rescheduled for March 16-17, according to informed sources.

The government on Monday notified an 11-member board that includes six fresh inductions from the private sector. With the approval of the prime minister, the government has inducted Raziuddin (Razi), Munir K. Bana, Ashique Ali, Aamir A. Allawala, Asif Khan and Sheikh M. Asif. M.A. Jabbar will continue on the board as a private sector member besides four government nominees — senior officials of ministries of finance and industries and the Privatisation Commission.

The 10-item agenda for the first meeting of the board will include election of the chairman and the meeting will mostly take up land-related issues besides review of some follow-up actions of past transactions.

The first item on the formal agenda will be establishment of a special economic zone near the PSM in the context of the CPEC, a federal government official told Dawn. He said that the Sindh government had reminded the Centre that the PSM land, estimated to be more than 17,000 acres, belonged to the province and had been given to the mill for operational purposes.

In a letter, the provincial government said the land would legally stand returned to the province if it was utilised for any other purpose or given to a third party.

Besides the land allocation for the CPEC as desired by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, the board will also consider fixation of the cost of another 930 acres of land handed over to the National Industrial Park for development of an industrial park at Bin Qasim.

Another land-related issue on the agenda will be revaluation of 1,508.65 acres classified under ‘investment property’ to be incorporated in the PSM accounts as on June 30, 2015.

Interestingly, the board will also discuss reduction in gas pressure and subsequent interruption in supply since June 10, 2015.

“The successive governments have been very slow in constituting the board, appointing full time management and taking strategic decisions about privatisation or revival of the PSM. But now quick decisions are being made to get rid of its goldmine -- the land,” commented an insider.

The ministry of industries and production notified about a month ago that the prime minister had approved allocation of 1,500 acres of PSM land for the CPEC industrial park and ordered that the matter be taken up with the Privatisation Commission and the PSM board for completing formalities.

It said that the land was originally meant for investment as per PSM book of accounts and could be utilised for development of an industrial park under the CPEC.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had given an undertaking to the International Monetary Fund on Aug 19, 2013, that the government would immediately appoint a professional board but it was never reconstituted with full 12-member strength.

A prime 220-acre plot of the PSM was given to the Al Tuwairqi Steel (ATS) during the tenure of former president Pervez Musharraf at a total lease value of about Rs261 million for 60 years at a meagre average rate of Rs118,000 per acre. The ATS management told Dawn that the land was ‘assigned’ to a consortium of banks led by the Islamic Corporation for the Development of private sector. It still remains so though a plant installed by the ATS has been non-operational due to refusal by the PML-N government to provide subsidised gas to it.

The PSM has been continuously losing its land to different institutions, private investors and encroachers with political support.

The Sindh Board of Revenue is reported to have reclaimed about 1,770 acres from encroachers during the PPP government’s tenure. But a major part of the land was leased out for 99 years to investors at times at a rate as low as Re1 per square yard a year. Some other parts of the land were again encroached upon by land mafia and sold out to individuals.

Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz had approved allocation of about 930 acres for the National Industrial Park on lease, but the PSM could not recover the lease amount.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2017