Govt to restructure loss making firms


Express June 16, 2010

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that the government will restructure eight organisations that had become white elephants and were eating up Rs220 billion of public resources annually.

Addressing the participants of a course at the National Defence University on Tuesday, he said that Pakistan Steel Mills, Railways, PIA and Wapda are among the organisations which get government’s assistance to function despite incurring huge losses.

He said these organisations had been running in losses for years and will be restructured and run on economically viable basis.

“I have tasked the Finance Minister Abdul Hafeez Sheikh with the responsibility to personally monitor Steel Mills and Wapda affairs. Restructuring would take place without any political interference and job cuts,” he said.

“We will not allow anyone to challenge the writ of the government.

The whole nation is united behind armed forces to get rid of terrorism and extremism. Pakistan does not need a certificate from anybody in the US or the UK about the ongoing war on terrorism,’’ Gilani stated.

He said that the government is working on short, medium and long-term strategies to resolve the energy crisis. Many projects are in the pipeline which will start functioning soon, he added.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 16th, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

Meekal Ahmed | 14 years ago | Reply Mr. Prime Minister, no meaningful restructuring can take place without labor-shedding. These public enterprises are massively over-staffed. Jobs have to be cut at all levels with, of course, fair severance packages given to those who loose their jobs (most of whom should not have been employed in the first place). No where in the world, whether it is public or private sector, manufacturing or services, has serious restructuring not been accompanied by job cuts. I wish we would stop kidding ourselves. Those who brief the Prime Minister to dish out fairy-tales should be sacked. Offering government assistance to organizations which continue to incur losses is a good example of throwing good money after bad. It is the wrost thing we could possibly do. Government assistance should be linked to credible plans for restructuring, not simply handed out as a free lunch.
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