Its haste is fuelled in part by a desire to please some US friends, according to well-placed sources. Already, fears have been expressed in certain quarters that the unusual haste will have an economic fallout: not only will the shares of these organisatons be lost but the nation will also lose its valuable assets.
According to documents available with Daily Express, the federal government has accepted the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) government’s wish-list of state institutions it wants to sell off.
The Council of Common Interests (CCI) had approved 65 organisations for privatisation during the last PPP tenure and the present government has selected 31 organisations out of that list. One notable exception is Pakistan Steel Mills which has been excluded from the plan.
The incumbent government, however, has only got permission from the Privatisation Committee of the Cabinet and not the CCI. A meeting of the Privatisation Commission Board has been called on January 8 to approve the appointment of the financial adviser for privatisation.
The sources said the government wanted to speed up the privatisation process as international bidders were still to be included and the minimum period required for completion of the privatisation process was 18 months.
However, the government wants to complete the process for the important organisations like Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDC) in just nine months. The sources said the government wanted to especially favour some US companies as it was planning to hand over very precious reserves and assets of the oil and gas sector to American companies.
The first meeting of the privatisation commission on January 8 will discuss the appointment of financial adviser for the privatisation of government shares in the UBL through stock market, 26% shares of the PIA and PI Investment Limited’s Roosvelt Hotel in New York and Scribe Hotel in France.
The appointment of financial adviser for privatisation of National Power Construction Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) and OGDCL will also be discussed.
The sources said the present government was following the footprints of Musharraf’s government by selling the shares of the OGDCL in the international stock market.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 6th, 2014.
COMMENTS (14)
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@theOnlySane & @Zeeshan: Both of you are right; privatization is indeed a solution many times, if done with sincerity and integrity and with people's interests at heart. In Pakistan it is done after deliberately destroying valuable institutions and then these institutions are sold for giveaway prices to reward political supporters and patrons. That is what my comment was about. Both of you are correct indeed that many times institutions can be run more efficiently, deliver better services to the people, and operate profitably, under private control than run by the government. We need to elect honest and forward-looking individuals, from the local level up, hold them accountable to be honest themselves and to deliver on their promises. This is necessary to make life for our people a little easier to live. You are not doomed to live in poverty and misery for eternity; unless you choose to do so. Pulling out of it is hard work but nations have done it and so can we.
Its quite clear that any opinion not in favour of privatization will not be published
article appears to be a biased piece towards privatization. if you think Govts can run business successfully, cite it. otherwise give some reasons not to privatize. is this a news or opinionated piece where is editor...what happens to express tribune
DT - What happened to your journalistic ethics? An unnamed source is used to malign the government without bothering to have their veiwpoint? The story at best is speculative, devoid of facts.
Privatisation is the need of the hour, when the tax-payers have to foot $5 billiion in subsidising the white elephants. This huge amount can help balance the sheets.
The criteria for sale should be simple and in the countrys interest : If the organisation has been making a loss over a sustained period of time, it should be privatised. Both PIA and Steel Mills should be privatised immediatly and political considerations must not, under any circumstances be entertained.
This is the right thing to do, cut your losses. PIA should have been a private entity a long time ago, after all it was a private airline to begin with.Orient Airlines owned by the Isphanis. It was nationalized, did great till it still hand a private air about it then it was turned into a favoritism corporation. Look at the progressive world it is all run by the private sector. Stop dreaming of hand outs in the forms of jobs which you are not competent to do yet you can get because uncle knows somebody who will do the favor.Look at all the industry that ZAB our great socialist leader destroyed by nationalization. Insurance at large, Chemical, steel machine tool heavy manufacturing like BECO, Valika steel, Saigol chemicals just a few, they were leaders at that time, now those plants produce zero, they are like any government department. Time for radical change, no more nepotism.
@Arzoo look at the service of PTCL now! it has improved many times and now the company is highly profitable. Businesses should be run by private individuals for profit making keeping some govt involvement to ensure security..
PIA is the first company that should be sold. And in rapid succession all other loss making companies should be sold
@Arzoo: No matter how competent government run administration can turn these institutions around and make them profitable, one corrupt, incompetent government like previous PPP government will ruin it in weeks if not days by appointing matric pass chairmen and fill the organizations with their relatives. So instead of bothering with that just sell them under a transparent process and let private entities to run them under a professional management as it is being done all over the world. Here in Australia they have sold national bank, airline, most of it's telco and now planning to sell Australia Post and govt owned medibank.
There is no such thing as peoples institutions. Businesses should be run like business not some government office. The privatization process should really be speeded up. It's too slow, and most government owned businesses are bleeding profoundly.
@optimist: So did I!
Instead of curing the causes of the disease and return the institutions back to profitability, as they used to be, the grave dancers and distributing the loot among their supporters and protégés. They have sold PTCL to Arab brothers, all the mobile companies in the country are foreign owned, the Banks have been sold at giveaway prices, and now they are getting ready to dispose PIA and other valuable institutions. Of course, the excuse is that these institutions are costing the treasury billions. Well, they are costing billions, instead of making billions, because of nepotism, provincialism, corruption, and loot. Solution is not to sell them, but to return people's institutions to profitability by taking the right steps.
Right from the start, the tone of article appears to be VERY biased. So I stopped reading!