Minister denies utility stores’ closure plans

ISLAMABAD:

The National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production on Wednesday expressed dissatisfaction over a Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) executive engineer (XEN) delivering a briefing on behalf of the ministry, questioning the absence of the ministry’s secretary and other relevant officials.

The lower house panel, chaired by Syed Hafeezuddin, convened to review the proposed development budget for the upcoming fiscal year.

The committee chairman highlighted that the Ministry of Industries and Production had a budget of PKR 4.91 billion in the previous fiscal year but utilised only Rs22.09 million of its development funds.

During the session, PSM XEN delivered a briefing on behalf of the ministry, which sparked outrage among committee members.

Expressing his discontent, Committee Member Abdul Hakeem Baloch questioned how an XEN could represent the ministry in such a critical discussion. He inquired about the absence of the ministry’s secretary and other relevant officials.

“Your role seems limited to laying off employees rather than addressing core issues,” Baloch remarked.

The committee chairman assured members that the PSM issue would also be discussed in the meeting.

Addressing concerns about the fate of utility stores, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Rana Tanveer dismissed the impression that the entity was being closed. “Who is saying we are shutting down utility stores?” he asked. However, he acknowledged that the stores were incurring billions in losses.

Tanveer assured the committee that steps would be taken to secure the future of utility stores’ employees, clarifying that even permanent employees were not considered government staff. He further revealed plans to operate utility stores under a public-private partnership model.

“We have already decided that no new daily-wage workers will be hired in utility stores,” he added.

The minister also drew a parallel between the financial struggles of utility stores and the downfall of PSM, once the largest steel plant in Asia. “Small stores have been opened in single-room spaces across various cities, which is not a sustainable model,” he noted.

The committee chairman announced that both utility stores representatives and the PPP would be called for further discussions.