Pakistan Steel Mills from foundation to destruction | History of Pak Steel Mills | Pak Citizen TV
Channel: CITIZEN TV
Date: 2020-07-23

In this video, a brief history of Pakistan Steel Mills has been described. During Ayub Khan's rule, the country's first steel mill was established in 1967 in the East Pakistani city of Chittagong. The government of Pakistan decided to start the Karachi Steel Project in 1968. For this purpose, a private limited company was established on July 2, 1968 with the name of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation under the Companies Act.
In January 1969, Pakistan Steel entered into an agreement with a Soviet Union firm to prepare a feasibility report for the project. Subsequently, the Government of Pakistan and the Soviet Union ratified the agreement in January 1971 wherein Soviet Union agreed to provide technical and financial assistance.
The foundation stone of Pakistan Steel Mills was laid by the then Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto on December 30, 1973. The completion of the project was formally inaugurated on January 15, 1985 by the President of Pakistan General Zia-ul-Haq. The cost of the project was Rs. 25 billions.
From the construction to the completion of the Pakistan Steel Mill and the production process, some forces had started negative propaganda against it. Pakistan Steel's deficit was due to its incompleteness. The project consisted of two phases, of which the first phase with a capacity of 100,000 tons started production in 1985. The second phase, in which Pakistan Steel's production would have increased from a modest cost to 2.2 million tonnes per annum, remained incomplete due to unfavorable political conditions.
Pakistan Steel has been completely closed and inactive since June 2015. Its production capacity has come down to zero but its residential colonies and some important departments are still active. The number of employees of the company was around 27,000 in 1990 which has come down to 9,000 in 2020. The government spends more than Rs.35 crore every month on employees' salaries. Bailout packages of billions of rupees were approved for this but this institution could not be revived.
Eventually, the government decided to lay off employees through the Golden Handshake for the privatization of the company, but it is to be noted that thousands of retired employees of the Steel Mills are still stumbling for their billions of rupees and are worried about their future.