‘No plans for Pakistan Post sell-off’

Islamabad: Several countries may have successfully corporatised or privatised postal services and even many Pakistanis may be advocating the sell-off of the loss-making Pakistan Post but it is official, now: the federal government has no plans to do so.

“The rumour has it that the Pakistan Post will be privatised. It’s simply untrue. This rumour, which I rather call disinformation, has been deliberately spread by our competitors, privately-owned courier companies, to serve their corporate ends. Let me put the record straight that the Pakistan Post is neither a corporation nor a public limited company and instead, it’s a government institution, which can’t be corporatised or privatised in its current form. Such thing had never been thought about by the government nor is it in the works right now,” postal services secretary Dr Saqib Aziz told reporters here.

He, however, hastened to add that the Pakistan Post, as part of reform strategy, had planned joint ventures with the private sector. “The privately-owned entities will invest money and introduce modern technology in these ventures, whose operation, management and financial controls will rest with us,” he said.

The secretary complained about the unregulated courier services in the country but welcomed the recent proposed legislation to regulate them. He said though operating in the country for around 25 years, the private courier companies had ironically no regulatory framework.

“Such circumstances go against the fair, competitive business principles, consumer and state interests, and legal provisions. However, the National Assembly passing a bill lately to regulate them is a welcome development, which will ultimately protect the interest of consumers, state and courier service providers, create fair business conditions, and bring the operations of courier companies within the ambit of the law,” he said.

Dispelling the perception that the Pakistan Post retains the proceeds of its services for own expenditure, Dr Saqib insisted that whatever his organisation earned went to the national exchequer.

“We do not keep even a single rupee from our earnings. All that is earned is transferred to the government’s treasury with the finance ministry allocating budget to us every financial year, like other departments, to meet operational expenditure and execute developmental and non-developmental tasks,” he said.

Agreeing that the Pakistan Post’s operational staff members are not motivated in the absence of incentives, the secretary said the organisation recently launched an incentive scheme on the receipt and delivery of utility bill payments but the external auditors’ objections brought it to an end. “I strongly believe that the revival of that incentivisation move will help improve our services and revenue generation at the same time,” he said.