Govt to revive PSM by public-private partnership.

The government has taken another U-turn in its efforts to resume operations of the sick Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and has pressed ahead with the plan of reviving the mill through public-private partnership.

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) has decided to put PSM on the privatisation list, but the adviser to prime minister has held meetings with Chinese and Russian companies to initiate the process of reviving the steel mill through public-private partnership.

Earlier, the Sindh government had scuppered a plan of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) administration in the centre to revive the financially troubled and closed PSM by resisting the sale of its land for settling liabilities.

An expert group, formed by the current PTI government and tasked with suggesting ways for reviving PSM, in its report recommended that land assets available with the steel mill could be utilised to settle outstanding liabilities worth Rs206 billion.

The Ministry of Industries and Production had proposed two options to the ECC - putting PSM on the privatisation list and hiring a transaction adviser for bid selection. The economic decision-making body had put the steel mill on privatisation list.

However, the government has started the process of reviving the steel mill through public-private partnership again. In this regard, Adviser to...