Govt warned against selling off key public institutions

LAHORE: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) has warned the government against any plan to privatise key national institutions like PIA, Steel Mills, Sui gas, etc. for peanuts, during the last moments of its rule, terming it a worst kind of plundering of public assets and nepotism, and demanded a complete halt to the privatisation process.

The PML-N government has no right to privatise major national institutions on throwaway prices bypassing the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and parliament, said JI secretary-general Liaqat Baloch while addressing a press conference on Monday along with JI Information Secretary Amirul Azeem and Ziauddin Ansari advocate. “The government must stop privatisation of leading national institutions on throwaway prices, causing huge losses to national exchequer only to benefit its favourites,“ he said, warning that JI would raise the matter in NA and if needed move the Supreme Court. He said the government was not only opening the floodgates of corruption through this imprudent move but also throwing away the hard earned public money collected by imposing huge taxes on poor people.

Liaqat Baloch said Sui Northern and Sui Southern companies were earning profit of around fifteen billion per annum. He said the government was planning to divide the companies into sub-companies and the profitable part of the company was being privatised. He said the government’s decision would affect more than seven million consumers and render thousands of employees jobless. He said the government had also announced import of NLG and gas from TAPI. He said there was no progress on the agreement for gas import from Iran due to US pressure.

Baloch said an international organisation, KPNG, in its reports had warned the government that the further division of the gas companies would affect the supply system and cause huge losses during the next a few years.

Baloch said it was unfortunate that the government was in confrontation with the Supreme Court on corruption charges and was deliberately damaging the image of supreme judiciary only to protect one man from the grip of the law.