KARACHI: A labour court has asked the counsel for the management of the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) to argue on Jan 6 on maintainability of its application seeking court’s permission to sack more than 50 per cent employees due to a financial crunch.

The PSM management had filed an application, through its acting deputy general manager Riaz Hussain Mangi, pleading to the court to grant permission to sack more than half of the mill’s workers.

Under Section 11-A of the Industrial and Commercial Employment (Standing Order) Ordinance 1968, the chief executive of an enterprise can terminate 49pc of workers from service but needs the permission of a labour court to sack 50pc or more than 50pc of the workforce.

In the application, it was submitted that due to heavy losses the production in the mills was stopped in 2015, thus all the activities came to a halt.

On June 30, the accumulated loss of the organisation was in excess of Rs212 billion, while the total capital of the mill was Rs17.206bn. The company has huge payables to various businesses and entities, the application said.

The court was informed that while the accounts of the organisation for the previous years had been audited, the accounts for 2019-2020 were yet to be audited, adding that the auditors had expressed serious reservations regarding the status of the organisation in their audit reports.

The chief executive has already terminated the services of about 49pc PSM workers

The applicant submitted that the PSM was heavily overstaffed and such expenditures had been a major drag on its financial status.

He maintained that the PSM was a project of national importance, but due to overstaffing and other related factors it had become totally unviable and impossible to run or operate under the present arrangements ie staffing level, plant conditions, technology and financial constraints.

The court was informed that at present the salary, wage and benefits cost was about Rs20 million, which had been reduced to Rs10m per day through recent retrenchment of the staff.

It was further informed that according to an assessment carried out by a reputed Chinese firm, the PSM required massive renovation, repair and replacement to put it back in operation, adding that the foreign company’s assessment suggests $180m (Rs29bn) compared to the accumulated losses of Rs212bn.

It further mentioned that a huge amount for the revival of only 1.1 million tonnes per annum capacity (ie $580m or Rs84bn) was not within the resources of the mills and that too on top of the losses of Rs212bn.

Therefore, the board of directors deliberated upon the matter in its meeting dated Oct 23 and had decided to retrench unutilised manpower. Consequently, the chief executive passed an order for the retrenchment of about 49pc workers and most of the non-workman employees. Therefore, 4,544 workers were retrenched by mailing them retrenchment letters.

However, Judge Faheem Ahmed of the Labour Court-IV asked the applicant’s counsel to satisfy the court on the maintainability of the application for hearing and passing an order.

Warrants out in Abidi murder case

An antiterrorism court has once again repeated non-bailable warrants for arrest of four suspects allegedly involved in the murder of Muttahida Qaumi Movement leader Ali Raza Abidi.

The Counter-Terrorism Department booked and arrested Mohammad Farooq, Abdul Haseeb, Mohammad Ghazali and Abu Bakr for the murder.

Abidi was assassinated by armed motorcyclists in an attack on his vehicle near his residence in Defence Housing Authority, Phase-V on Dec 25, 2018.

Four absconders — Bilal, Hasnain, Faizan and Ghulam Mustafa — are still at large as the law enforcers failed to track them despite a lapse of two years.

The matter recently came up before the ATC-XVII judge. Three detained accused were produced in custody while Haseeb appeared on bail. IO Ali Hyder as well as defence counsel for two accused persons failed to appear in court.

The judge directed the IO to appear in court on the next date for recording his testimony against the accused persons.

The judge once again repeated non-bailable warrants for the arrest of the alleged absconding suspects.

Meanwhile, judicial sources said that the court had fallen vacant following the transfer of the presiding officer.

Order on bail pleas in Arzoo case on 17th

A sessions court reserved on Friday its order on the bail applications of main suspect and four others in a case pertaining to alleged rape and forced marriage of an underage Christian girl, who has reportedly converted to Islam.

On Friday, Additional District and Sessions Judge (South) Faiza Khalil took up the post-arrest bail application of Ali Azhar, who is currently in custody, and application for confirmation of pre-arrest bail granted to cleric Ghulam Rasool Naqshbandi, Justice of Peace Azharuddin, Advocate Mahmood Hasan and his clerk Junaid.

After hearing arguments from the state prosecutor and counsel for the parties, the judge reserved the order on the bail applications for Dec 17.

Published in Dawn, December 12th, 2020