–Ghani says Sindh govt will resist all unilateral decisions regarding steel mills
–Responds to Cynthia’s allegations, says they are an attempt to ‘malign political leadership of country’
KARACHI: A few days after the federal government decided to layoff over 9,000 Pakistan Steel Mills, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) warned the government that it would resist any move to sack the PSM employees while urging for a Council of Common Interests meeting to resolve the issue.
“Not only will the PPP condemn any attempt to sack the 9,500 steel mills workers but we will practically stand with them to oppose this move,” said Sindh Education Minister Saeed Ghani during a press conference.
“We will resist this. We will stand with these workers and neither will we leave them helpless nor will we let them be fired,” he added.
The PPP leader categorically rejected allegations that the party was guilty of ensuring its own workers were hired in the PSM. “This perception is totally wrong,” he said. “I can say this with absolute surety that the PPP, from 2008-2013, did not have one person hired in the steel mills,” noted Ghani.
“However, there was this one thing that we did. And we did not do this with the steel mills alone but with various other institutions. The PPP government regularised workers that were on contract, which is according to the constitution,” he added.
Ghani said that the workers who were fired were appointed in the steel mills in 1996-2008. “These were not PPP’s appointees. To say that they were hired by the party is wrong,” he said.
“It would have been easier for us to dismiss those people, create vacancies and then hire our own people. We did not do that.”
Ghani said that the government of Sindh was the owner of the land on which the PSM was built. The PPP leader noted that the total land acquired by the steel mills was 19,000 acres.
“The government of Sindh is the true owner of this land,” he said. “If the federal government takes any decision without the [Council of Common Interests] CCI’s approval or without taking Sindh government into confidence, we will resist it,” he stressed.
During his press conference, Ghani touched upon the allegations made by US blogger Cynthia D Ritchie, who had accused former interior minister Rehman Malik of rape and former prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani of ‘manhandling’ her several years ago.
“I would urge all the media channels of Pakistan, that an issue is being created to malign the political leadership of Pakistan,” he said. “You can put it in writing. If we create pomp and show about it, then today it is the PPP, tomorrow it will be another party and then so on. Maybe, those who are blowing trumpets about it, they can also [fall victim to it].”
He warned the federal government by saying that people were aware of the ‘activities’ of those who were in power. “If they [federal government ministers] think they can be happy over false allegations regarding others, then they will have to face true allegations against themselves. Then, they will not be able to rid themselves of it,” added Ghani.
In response to a question, he angrily said that Cynthia had not revealed any confidential information about the PPP. “We have forgotten about the locusts, we have forgotten about the coronavirus, we have forgotten about poverty, we have forgotten about unemployment, we have forgotten about the economy. We are running the baseless and false allegations of a woman in our headlines,” said Ghani.
In response to another question, the PPP leader said that Cynthia’s allegations were a “pre-planned strategy to malign Pakistan’s political leadership”. He said that the allegations were being posed by a woman whose “character was dubious”.
“At times, she is in Israel, at times in India. A foreigner comes here and tries to be more patriotic than you and me. How can it be?” he asked.
from Pakistan Today https://ift.tt/375G4UG
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