State sell-off: Legislators, trade unions oppose privatisation

Speakers criticise past privatisations, question logic of further sales.

ISLAMABAD:

Over 35 labour unions representing the staff of government institutions along with current and former members of parliament on Tuesday unanimously vowed to oppose any plans to privatise state enterprises.

The anti-privatisation conference at the National Press Club saw the main hall jam-packed with employees and federations of Pakistan Railways, Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, Pakistan Airlines, Oil and Gas Development Company Limited and other bodies.

Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Khurshid Shah, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf MNA Asad Umar, PPP Senator Saeed Ghani and other former members of parliament strongly opposed the government’s privatisation initiative.

Ghani was of the view that 1991 to 2007 about 29 banks were privatised among the 167 government bodies, and the national kitty only saw a return of Rs176 billion against these deals. “No prior search or study has ever been conducted and the current government is creating further confusion about it,” he said. Referring to a recent exchange in the Senate, he said one of the members of the incumbent government had said that running airlines and railways was not governments’ jobs. “So is running the metro bus the government’s job?”

He said government cannot share data about how much privatised entities were contributing for public welfare.

Umar commented that privatisation was a hoax and the current government had no justification for it. “The world’s best airlines — Singapore Airlines and Emirates — were government-owned. Besides, the government pays a Rs85 billion subsidy to Karachi Electricity Supply Corporation in the budget, although it is now a private entity,” he added. He asked the government what had changed to push it to move forward without any consultation or consensus. He said the PTI was against any such step and would not let it happen.

He lamented that the government stated that they did not have money to run government organisations, yet the metro bus was running on a loss of Rs10 million per day. Shah reminded the audience that in their government, a proposal for privatisation of OGDCL was floated, but the cabinet did not pass it. “Let me remind you that nothing will happen this time and I urge all of you to be united for the sacrifice,” he remarked.

He said that if the government was so incapable of managing state entities and had so much faith in private ownership, it should also privatise state security, since restoration of peace was also an issue that the government had failed at.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2014.