People's Steel Mills is or was one such organisation that was able to produce maraging steel and many other types. Furthermore, steel mills has always under performed due to the incompetent management and corruption. All it needs is an acid dip for the whole team and except for the honest and professional people. It should be coupled with an experimental R&D facility for materials. What I heard that when the greatest of Pakistan leaders ZAB brought this project to Pakistan through his par excellence diplomatic skills from USSR, it was planned as a long term project with up-gradation and expansion of facilities and production in multiple phases. But after ZAB, Pakistan and USSR actually found themselves on collision trajectory and thus the next steps did not materialise. Without ability to produce high grade and advanced materials, a foray into the development of gas turbines for aerospace applications is not possible. In my opinion, it should have been given a similar attention and significance as the nuclear program. Right now, there are several missing links and thus the costs are unnaturally high for Pakistan and often such materials are classified as dual use and thus prone to embargoes. We never had a competent minister for industrial production though it alone cannot do much since an equally competent minister for science and technology is required to work in tandem and it takes a long time.
