THE incumbent Government has decided to privatize 49 public sector entities in the next five years. Secretary Privatization told National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatization that fifteen companies have been taken out of the privatization list and eight others have been added to it.
The organizations on the updated list of privatization include national assets like OGDCL, PPL, PIA hotels in New York and Paris. NFC, State Engineering Corporation, Pakistan Machine Tool Factory, Heavy Electrical Complex, KPT, PAQ, PNSC, PTCL and NBF. DISCOs and power generation companies are also included in the list, which means that almost the entire power sector would be up for sale. Disposal of loss-incurring entities like Discos is understandable as the successive governments miserably failed to curb the menace of theft and line losses and the only option to make them profitable seems to be privatization. However, the sale of profit earning entities like PTCL is questionable and speaks volumes about motives of the entire process. The country is still grappling with the faulty first phase of privatization of PTCL as the national kitty has yet to receive the proceeds and therefore, there was hardly any justification to offload remaining shares of the Government in the company. Similarly, there are several other organizations like PIA hotels, OGDCL, KPT and PAQ that can definitely be improved if the Government takes bold steps to reform them and appoints professional personnel to run their affairs. Delisting of institutions like PSO, SNGPL, SSGC, CAA, USC, NHA, NCL, Pakistan Steel and Pakistan Railways is a welcome development and it is hoped that serious efforts would be made to transform them into efficient and profit earning organizations. We have also been emphasizing in these columns that a neutral study should be carried out to assess whether the country benefited or lost from the dubious process of privatization.
