PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Tuesday directed the relevant officials to make necessary amendments to the rules of business of all public sector entities to rapidly commercialise public properties and widen the province’s resource base.

He issued the directions which chairing a marathon meeting here at the Chief Minister’s House on the commercialisation of public properties, high-rise buildings and widening of fiscal space of the province.

The participants discussed the properties of different public sector institutions and explored ways to formally commercialise them.

They also discussed the additional resource generation and made a number of decisions.

The CM said the rules of business should not be seen as an obstacle to the whole process of commercialisation of public sector properties and resource generation mechanism.

He said amendments should be made to those rules if they’re a hurdle to the smooth process of commercialisation and resource generation mechanism.

Mr. Khattak said each department should immediately work out its plan of commercialisation. He said his government could not afford to waste time and that he understood the yawning gap between the public and private sector performance and dynamism.

The CM asked participants to develop a professional approach and even hire professionals if needed for the commercialisation of public property.

He also directed the administration department to transfer 20 kanals of its land in Dabgari Garden area for the Rapid Bus Transit Project and asked the administration and transport secretaries and PDA director general to finalise modalities to make the land part of the proposed transport service.

Mr. Khattak said his government had given a plan and the department concerned should formulate the ‘forward looking’ for the commercialisation process.

He said the approach should be replicated in all districts, where public property was available but needed to be developed along commercial lines.

The CM ordered the disposal of the land owned by the province in Punjab’s Bhakkar area.

He said he had set targets for all departments to increase earnings and widen fiscal space and therefore, necessary steps should be taken to achieve them without delay.

“Our province needs development. My government won’t look to others for financial help and therefore, there should be an approach for the stronger and sustainable resource base so that the province could stand on its own two feet,” he said.

Also in the meeting, the CM was briefed about the vast commercial land of different departments and possible increase in their value through commercialisation to generate revenue for the province.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2016

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