ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) stalwart, Senator Raza Rabbani on Tuesday said that the government’s move to privatise the government entities without the Council of Common Interest’s (CCI) approval would be unconstitutional.

Addressing a press conference, he said that the government had already prepared a list of the government entities for privatisation while it has decided to privatise 32 public sector enterprises on priority bases.

Rabbani said these enterprises also under control of provinces after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, adding that the government, however, was taking such decisions without consulting the provincial governments in this regard.

“The federal government and the provinces have fifty per cent shares in government entities under the 18th amendment,” he remarked.

The senior PPP senator said that these public sector organisations were the flagship of the government and it was difficult to understand why the government was involved in privatisation of its strategic assets.

Senator Rabbani said he has written a letter to the chief ministers of all four provinces and vowed that his party will not allow the government to privatise the public sector enterprises at any cost.

“It is our right to protect the rights of provinces,” he added.

Rabbani alleged that the government was taking dictation from the IMF regarding privatisation of the government enterprises, adding that such moves can make thousands of employees jobless.

The PPP senator warned that his party would form a joint front of the opposition parties against the government if it failed to review its policy on the issue.

Earlier, Chairman Privatization Commission, Mohammad Zubair chaired a high level meeting of the board regarding the process of the privatisation of 11 public sector enterprises including PIA, UBL, HBL, ABL, OGDCL, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), FESCO, LESCO, NPCC, Heavy Electric Complex (HEC) and TPS Muzafargarh.