Not a good option

This refers to the editorial, ‘Privatising PSM’ (Jan 21). It has rightly raised many questions, but has overlooked very important condition of leasing about revenue sharing but not profit sharing, that simply means that government shall equally share further losses

What is wisdom in leasing out the PSM when the government is going to accept Rs166 billion losses and Rs173 billion liabilities? Workers have not been paid since September 2016. The PSM has a work force of 12800 with accrued salaries of Rs380 million and the institution is making a loss of Rs2 billion per month. In this context, leasing is the worst option. If the government is ready to absorb this huge amount and give 5 years tax holiday and concessions in custom duties on import of machinery, why can it not manage it? In 1985 with a work force of 23000, the institution was generating huge profits, but due to massive corruption the country destroyed its biggest industrial unit. In the end, the country will end up in a bigger disaster like the one happening with PIA running in loss and the government has further injected Rs10.5 billion. The privatisation commission is just chasing shadows in the dark

Mukhtar Ahmed

Karachi