‘Privatisation part of PML-N’s reform agenda’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is not privatising the public sector entities under the pressure of Breton Woods system, but “Privatisation is the essential reform agenda of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government”, and the government is ensuring complete transparency in its privatisation deals.
Privatization Commission Chairman Mohammad Zubair said at a press conference after the commission came under criticism from the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party senators in the parliament.
Zubair dispelled the impression that Pakistan is privatising the public sector entities on the demand of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. He asked the critics that instead of indulging in rhetoric they should come out with concrete proposals to improve the process.
There are four forums for privatisation, including evaluation committee, transaction committee, board of directors, and cabinet committee on privatisation, which look into the deal, he added. The process of privatising an entity normally takes two to three years to complete, which exceed to three to four years in some cases like Habib Bank Limited and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). There are around 25 entities on active list.
Zubair said that Faisalabad Electric Supply Company (FESCO), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), transaction structure has been approved. While, the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation has approved the transaction structure of FESCO and the marketing for this company has also started.
Talking about the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills, minister of state said that the federal government was waiting for the Sindh government’s reply to buy the mills. The CCoP had decided to offer the PSM acquisition to the Sindh government, as the province showed interest in it, he remarked. Further progress would be made after a response was received from the Sindh government. “History will be written by privatising the PIA and PSM”, he added.
He said that the government wanted to privatise the Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) in order to reduce the financial burden on the national kitty. “This is the fourth attempt made by the government for the privatisation of the HEC, as the earlier ones were made by the Musharraf government, PPP, and another by the incumbent government.”
He also clarified that the Privitisation Commission wanted to transfer Rs33 billion contingent assets to the buyers of PSM.
Opposition’s reaction
In the meantime, Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Privatisation, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla of the PPP suggested that the government should work on reviving national strategic institutes like the PSM and PIA, instead of going on a single track policy of privatisation to please the IMF.
Organisations like the PIA and PSM are national assets and can be revived if there is political will. Some forces want to destabilise the public sector enterprises (PSEs) to make the process of privatisation smooth, he said.
Mandviwalla demanded that a full-fledged enquiry should be held into the affairs of the PIA from 2005 to 2015. He asked for an investigation against the forces behind the two strikes PIA faced.
Senator Mandviwalla revealed that after the strike in 2011, the union leaders in a joint statement had said that if the government accepted their demands of cancelling the Turkish agreement and removal of then MD, PIA will become profitable in six months. But now the very same forces are saying if that arrangement between PIA and Turkish Airlines had materialised, PIA would have been in a better position.
He said, “It is time we investigate and identify those forces responsible for bringing PIA to this state, irrespective of the fact whose lobby they belonged to. If they were appointees of our (PPP) government or those supported by the then opposition (PML-N), we must bring all to account for their misdoings.”
“If this task is given to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Privatisation, we will investigate this in six weeks and bring the facts to the people of Pakistan. The Committee will indentify the forces responsible for bringing the PIA to the present situation,” he said.
The senator further added, “I firmly believe that PIA can still be made a profitable organisation. Anyone can show profits in a booming business. What we want to hear is how an organisation that is sinking can be revived.”
It is shocking to see that advisors of the government who claim to be champions of the corporate world are suggesting selling the organisation, he continued. “I appeal to the PM to take immediate initiative and give this task to the senate finance committee,” Senator Mandviwalla added
He said that the Finance Minister was constantly borrowing from the IMF to build up Pakistan's foreign exchange reserves and giving a false impression of economic revival, “all he is doing is overburdening the national exchequer so that the next government is bogged down with these loans”.