Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: State Minister and Privatisation Commission Chairman Muhammad Zubair has said that the government had privatised five state-owned entities (SOEs) worth of Rs 170 billion during its current regime.

“Habib Bank Ltd, United Bank Ltd, Allied Bank Ltd, National Power Construction Company and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd are the main entities, which have been successfully privatised by the incumbent government,” Zubair said. The government was implementing its policy of privatisation with complete transparency in the process, he added. The Privatisation Commission chairman said that during the privatisation process of SOEs, the government took broad-based decisions for ensuring accountability.

At the moment, nine SOEs including Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) were included in the list of privatization, he said. First of four stages of privatisation process of PIA and PSM had been completed, while further work on the process was underway, he added. The Sindh government had shown interest to own PSM, Zubair said adding that because of some technical issues, the process of PIA privatisation was delayed and it would be ensured that the entire process would be done under the privatisation ordinance.

The government was also restructuring some institutions included in the privatisation list to enhance their capacity, he informed. “We are looking all aspects including financial, legal, human resources and technical process for privatising any national institution, the Privatisation Commission chairman said.

“State Life Corporation had also been included in the active list of privatisation for giving good service to the people”, he added. Zubair further said that the process of privatisation takes more time, as there were different phases the Privatisation Commission had to follow to ensure transparency and accountability adding that opposition and some sections of media were opposing privatisation without any ground, and after privatisation these entities would ensure good services to the people.