Brigadier (retd) Shujah Hassan appointed new Steel Mills CEO

ISLAMABAD: The federal government on Friday announced that it has appointed Brigadier (retd) Shuja Hassan as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Pakistan Steel Mills.

“The Federal Government has been pleased to appoint Brig. (retd) Shujah Hassan as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Pakistan Steel Mills under the Ministry of Industries & Production for a period of one year with immediate effect and until further orders,” read a notification by the Establishment Division.

The federal government had announced a few months ago that it was privatising the Pakistan Steel Mills, as opposition parties slammed the government for going back on its word to run the state institution in an efficient manner.

Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar had said that the government had decided to privatize it as it had become a burden on the national exchequer.

He said that PSM employees had not been working for the last many years and now they would get a financial package of around Rs2.3 million per employee as compensation. Besides, he said, employees could also contribute to productivity in the private sector.

He had said that at one stage, the PSM had 30,000 employees out of which many employees had retired and now there were an estimated 9,000 employees working for the mill. He said the PSM was closed for the last five years and previous governments could not devise any plan for it.