‘Shares sale transparent solution to PSEs privatisation’

LAHORE
Sale of shares through stock market is the only transparent solution of privatisation of Public Sector Enterprises (PSEs), including Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), while the government should allow the private sector to run commercial institutions.
These views were expressed by the experts in Jang Economic Session on ‘how to redress reservations about privatisation of PIA, PSM’. The panellists were Almas Hyder, Hameed Akther Chadah, Mian Fazal Ahmed, Manzoor Malik and Rana Sajjad while hosted by Sikandar Lodhi.
Almas Hyder said Pakistan needed 20,000 schools and 5,000 dispensaries annually while development funds were being consumed on the PSEs and to meet circular debt; so society needs were being not fulfilled. He said the government had to decide what was important for it. He said money raised from privatisation should be used on social sector development. He said the government was benefited from banks privatisation but there was a need to redress public concerns and reservations about these privatisation decisions.
Hameed Akther Chadah said that PIA, and PSM both are national assets while successive government never tried to get advantage from it. As a result, these institutions are heavily burdened with over-staff, salaries and other incentives. He said 20 to 40 percent of shares of these institutions privatised while private administration allowed to sack political appointees. These steps will make them again profitable and improve performance, he remarked.
Manzoor Malik said that PIA, PSM and Pakistan Railways are national assets and privatisation for improvement of the PSEs is not solution. He said PTCL privatisation was failure while other privatised institutions were also closed. So the government should learn from past experiences and evolve a master plan for the betterment and revival of the PSEs instead of privatising them, he said. He said if metro bus services would develop by selling the PIA then privatisation would not benefit. He said transparent policies in institutions and allocation of resources for social sector could resolve the problems in a better way.
Mian Fazal Ahmed said that the government would soon privatise both PIA and PSM as government did not have any hope of improvement there. He said that international open bidding should be conducted for privatisation; only 26 percent shares should be sold and administration be handed over to private party while ownership should remain with the government of Pakistan while surety bonds should be taken from the private management for their performance plans and targets. Rana Sajjad said that objective of the privatisation was to increase revenue and poverty eradication but both targets were not achieved from the past privatisation decisions.
He said mismanagement and corruption issues should be resolved from the PSE instead of privatising them, restructure the PSM which will make these institutions profitable. He said IMF pressure was also a reason of the privatisation of the PSEs. He suggested a comprehensive strategy for the revival of the PSEs and improvement of professional management to resolve the issues.