ISLAMABAD: The opposition in the National Assembly on Thursday rejected the proposed privatisation of Pakistan Post when the five-year tenure of the government is to end soon.

Verbal clashes were witnessed between treasury and opposition benches on the issue of electricity loadshedding and proposed privatisation of Pakistan Post, followed by a walkout staged by members of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) against the closure of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM).

Through a calling attention notice, PTI leaders Dr Arif Alvi, Dr Shireen Mazari, Munaza Hassan, Lal Chand Malhi and Sajida Begum raised the issue of privatisation of Pakistan Post. They said an advertisement had been published in national dailies for public-private partnership to hastily private huge government assets, causing grave concern among the public.

“We want to know why the government is in a hurry to sell assets worth billions of rupees of the state-run Pakistan Post, which is giving huge revenue to the national exchequer,” Dr Alvi said.

PTI, PPP members stage walkout against the closure of Pakistan Steel Mills

He said the government wanted to privatise Pakistan Post within a month without meeting legal and technical prerequisites. “Even the financial audit of hundreds of properties of Pakistan Post across the country cannot be conducted in a month,” he added.

The PTI leader urged Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, who was presiding over the session, to forward the issue to the relevant standing committee for debate.

Sajida Begum said it was quite ironic that the Pakistan International Airlines, which had established Emirates, was in doldrums. “Similarly, negotiations are under way with a Chinese firm to sell billions of rupees assets of Pakistan Post,” she added.

Parliamentary Secretary Javed Ikhlas Abbasi said not the whole of Pakistan Post but three of its components — mobile service, parcel and logistics and infrastructure — were being privatised.

He said the government would bind the successful bidder to make a commitment that it will ensure generation of more revenue than the present Rs7.5 billion annually. He said Pakistan Post was causing a loss of Rs7 to 8bn every year because it had more than 97,000 employees.

Retired Capt Safdar and Abdul Mannan of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and PTI leaders Arif Alvi and Shehryar Afridi exchanged harsh words after the former said the disqualification of Nawaz Sharif was the root cause of all problems confronting the country.

The issue of loadshedding also caused pandemonium in the house as Minister of State for Power Abid Sher Ali and PTI and PPP leaders exchanged barbs.

The minister claimed that loadshedding was being conducted only in those areas where line losses were more than 30 per cent. “Loadshedding will continue in the areas of heavy line losses,” he added.

Naveed Qamar of the PPP said loadshedding was mostly being conducted in Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Members from the PPP, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and PTI staged a walkout in protest against the downfall of PSM and problems being faced by its employees.

Dr Fauzia of the MQM said the government had discontinued transportation facility for PSM employees a few days ago Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai sought details of the recent visit of Iranian Foreign Minister Jawad Zarif to Pakistan.

Capt Safdar demanded that the recent verdict of Justice Shaukat Aziz of the Islamabad High Court on Khatm-i-Nubuwat should be made part of the Constitution. Parliamentary leader of the Jamaat-i-Islami Tariq Ullah supported the demand.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2018