KARACHI: Business tycoon Mian Muhammad Mansha urged the government on Monday to hold a fire sale of state-owned entities (SOEs), especially in the banking and power sectors.

Speaking at a gong-ringing ceremony for the listing of Adamjee Life Assurance — a company of Mr Mansha-led Nishat Group — the business magnate called the losses suffered by the taxpayer-funded SOEs “unjustifiable”.

“We should immediately privatise NBP,” he said while referring to the government-owned National Bank of Pakistan. He highlighted NBP’s regulatory troubles in Bangladesh and the United States, which led to heavy fines, as grounds for its quick privatisation.

Mr Mansha rhetorically asked why private banks never faced such penalties overseas, failing to recall that poor compliance led two of the largest Pakistani banks from the private sector to wind up their New York operations in recent years.

“We’re in the middle of a transition in this country. It’s the first time I’ve realised that people think they need change. This is universal. Wherever you go, whichever region it is, whichever party it is, it is now getting into our heads that we need to put our house in order,” he said, reiterating his long-held demand for privatising electricity generation and distribution firms.

In a recent speech at the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr Mansha had vociferously called for normalising trade relations with India. “I thought (the speech) was going to be very controversial. But it did not turn out to be controversial at all,” he said, adding that the two countries can continue to have differences while maintaining bilateral trade.

After acquiring the insurance business, Mr Mansha said, he refused to remove the “Adamjee” name from the company out of respect for the family’s contribution to the country since Partition. The Mansha Group took over the non-life insurance provider back in 2004 in what was dubbed as the first hostile takeover in the country’s history. “I wanted the Adamjee name to continue,” he said.

Earlier, Mr Mansha hit the gong to mark the listing of Adamjee Life Assurance, which is one of the country’s 10 life insurance companies.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2022