ncumbent government’s proposed plan to privatize Pakistan International Air Lines and Pakistan Steel has met with strong opposition as mainstream opposition parties and labour bodies have voiced serious concerns over a proposed plan of the government to privatize the state-owned entities despite the fact that perpetual neglect and mismanagement on the part of authorities concerned has become a financial liability on the government besides inflicting loss to the exchequer.
Expressing its resentment over the move, Pakistan Peoples Party has warned the government against the privatization of PIA and Steel Mills saying that the PPP could move the court or adopt the path of public agitation if the present federal government went ahead with the plan. The former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said the government should hand over management of these large public enterprises to their employees if it lacks the ability to competently run them. Rabbani said the government should constitute new governing boards after abolishing the existing ones of the PIA and Pakistan Steel. The new boards, he said should hire economic experts and run these enterprises for a year transparently. He said the international financial institutions including the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank didn’t have any authority to dictate to the Pakistani government to privatize these public sector organizations. The former Senate chairman said that at the fag-end of its rule PML-N government was planning to sell them at throwaway prices when only three months are left in completion of its five-year constitutional term. He observed that public sector enterprises should not be sold in such a hurried and unjust manner as they belong to the poor people.
Regardless of the reservations expressed by opposition parties in this regard government in principle has decided to allow privatization of 49 per cent shares of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA). Moreover, the government is said to have decided about the sale of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM). Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has given formal go-ahead for the privatization of two state-run entities (Pakistan International Airlines and the Pakistan Steel Mills), which have virtually turned into white elephants. But the question is how long will these entities remain white elephants and how long will they survive on bailout packages. PIA is purportedly incurring a loss of Rs150 million daily to the national kitty, whereas PSM was incurring a loss of approximately Rs1.4 billion each month. No Private or Public sector enterprise can ever survive in such kind of dismal conditions. Unfortunately, the year’s long neglect, mismanagement, incompetence, political interference and corruption have rendered both these entities worthless and non-functional. There is a dire need to have a comprehensive policy and plan of a complete overhaul and restructuring in both the organizations. The Opposition’s main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public. But at the same time they are supposed to produce alternatives to help out the government in policy making.