Whether PIA’s privatisation goes ahead or not, it’s safe to say that it has already become controversial
ISLAMABAD: This is with reference to Kaiser Bengali’s article of February 6, titled “Privatisation of litanies”. He is right in suggesting that one of the biggest problems with Pakistan’s privatisation policy is the lack of transparency and the lack of debate on the issue. It’s no good that policymakers and finance ministry officials hob-nob with the IMF and the World Bank behind closed doors without having any meaningful discussion at the national level. Moreover, as Mr Bengali rightly pointed out, the proceeds from past privatisations ended up financing the ever-rising non-development expenditure. I have little doubt that the same will be the case now, if privatisation does go ahead.
Aside from the question of privatising loss-making public-sector entities, there’s a more critical question that needs to be addressed: why have successive governments failed to turn things around in these loss-making entities? What stopped them from doing so? Is the sale of these entities the only panacea? If the people in charge could have convinced us in terms of these questions, I don’t think there would have been such resistance. At present, whether PIA’s privatisation goes ahead or not, it’s safe to say that it has already become controversial
Shahid Mohmand
Published in The Express Tribune, February 7th, 2016.
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