Market economies

In open market economies, it is professional management that runs commercial enterprises far better than government bureaucrats managing a business. Unfortunately, due to lack of transparency, the privatisation process has been very slow and has become somewhat controversial in our country.

After the unification of East and West Germany, hundreds of thousands of state-run factories and companies in East Germany were sold to private investors just in two years. The German government prepared a booklet containing all necessary information about the factories and companies to be sold and offered them on a first-come-first basis. We have lost the ability even to copy the ways of good governance from other states. I have 100 shares of PIA which I purchased some 20 years ago but I have received not a single dividend as yet. I do not know what benefits other people, who also purchased PIA shares like me, are getting from them.

Engr S T Hussain

Lahore