Steel Company Sell-Off

KARACHI, 25 May 2006 — Pakistan’s top court has frozen the sale of state-run Pakistani Steel Mills, the country’s largest steel maker, to a group of Russian, Saudi and Pakistani firms, officials said. Unions petitioned the Supreme Court to halt the privatization on the grounds that it was unconstitutional and that the $362 million price paid by the consortium was too low. “The court has adjourned the hearing till Tuesday and asked the privatization commission to stop proceeding with regard to the deal till June 15,” an official at Pakistan attorney general’s office said. “The court has also ordered the commission to submit written replies to the objections which the petitioners had filed,” the official said.