Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Minister for Privatization Fawad Hassan Fawad here on Wednesday reiterated his government’s commitment to privatize all loss-making State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to reduce financial burden and enhance capabilities, and efficiencies for the sustainable economic development of the country.
He said that current economic conditions were not able to bear further losses of these SOEs, adding that the other objective of the privatization of such enterprises was to attract potential foreign investment for the development of these enterprises.
Addressing a news conference along with Minister for Information and Broadcasting Murtaza Solangi, he said that the Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar was also briefed about the privatization of such loss-making enterprises including Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).
He said that these permanent loss-making enterprises were not only wasting the financial resources of the government but also enhancing the burden on the common man and increasing inflation. He said that the accumulated losses of PIA were recorded at Rs713 billion out of which Rs263 billion comprised of debt, besides an additional amount of Rs13 billion was provided by the banks on government guarantee, he added the government also provided Rs150 billion from its own resources.
The minister said another objective of the privatization of PIA was to regain the maximum value and avoid unbearable losses to the national exchequer, which stood at Rs12.70 billion per month.
Fawad Hassan Fawad said that the other objective of the divestment of PIA was to attract foreign investment in the aviation industry and turn it into a hub of investment.
He said Pakistani pilots were highly skilled and capable of landing and taking off in difficult areas; similarly “our engineers and supporting staff are also of international standards.” Currently, he said the PIA fleet consisted of 34 aircraft, out of which 15 were grounded and 19 were operational and their accumulated losses were recorded at Rs 713 billion.
He informed that PIA was suffering Rs 500 million loss per day. Minister for Privatization said that the caretaker government is working on the privatization process which was started by the previous governments adding that no new entity was added to the privatization list.
He said that the government committed to protecting employee rights and benefits for those who were working in these entities.
He said that the previous experiments of privatization witnessed remarkable success in sectors like telecommunication, finance and banking, and cement sectors and revenue collection also increased by manifold from these sectors. The minister said that the telecom sector had around 197 million subscribers while covering 98 per cent of the country’s total population. “The telecom sector contributes 2.7% to the GDP.” However, he reaffirmed the caretaker government’s commitment to fulfilling the responsibilities entrusted to it.
