‘Privatisation should serve country’s best interests’

Experts call on govt to take process on case-to-case basis.

LAHORE: In a bid to assert the importance of the privatisation process, experts have urged the government to adapt the policy best suited for the country’s economic growth.

Presently, the privatisation process is moving at snail’s pace due to various factors, such as opposition from political parties, in addition to different unions raising objections on the choices of cooperation under consideration.

Additionally, legal delays and litigations on current as well as past privatisation processes have made investors cautious.

The basic slogan behind the privatisation mantra is to clear off the country’s debt. However, according to noted economist Dr Qais Aslam, the government has yet to commit to reduce the burden of loans on the already whimpering economy.

He added that when the nationalisation policy was implemented in 1970s, the whole world jumped on the bandwagon and now a similar trend can be seen with privatisation. “However, policies must be made while keeping in mind the ground realities of a country,” he said.

“There are some corporations that should be rehabilitated as they either serve a strategic purpose or serve interests of the masses,” he said. The transportation industry, in particular railways is a key example, which should not be sold away as it provides an economically viable mode of transport.

On the other hand, “Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) should be privatised; PIA is not serving even the rich, it is proving to be a nuisance for the economy,” Aslam said.

Cooperate lawyer Syed Intazar Mahdi said that the government should first deal with quashing antagonistic notions revolving around privatisation.

“NAB’s whips, investigations, suits in law courts and baseless statements of political parties - against institutions that were privatised 25 years back - have derailed the whole process,” said Mahdi.

However, Aslam said that whatever happens on the privatisation front is a separate debate but in order to sustain in the rapidly developing world “we also have to focus on creating state of the art assets”.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2015.

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