ISLAMABAD: Prime Minis­ter Nasir-ul-Mulk on Thursday directed the Privatisation Commission (PC) to conduct an analysis of the disinvestment process to learn from the experience and improve future transactions of public-sector enterprises (PSEs).

Secretary Privatisation Irfan Ali informed the prime minister that a total of 172 entities have been privatised generating proceeds of Rs678.9 billion since 1991.

Updated status of the privatisation process of Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan International Airlines and Karachi Electric Supply Corporation was shared on the occasion.

The previous government initiated privatisation of major entities including PIA and Steel Mills but had to revise its strategy owing to market conditions, progress of negotiations with labour unions and financial condition of PSEs.

This led to revised timelines and mode of transactions for larger entities, and resulted in a much reduced scope of privatisation actions for the government.

Since the privatisation programme slowed down in 2017 and funds from a loan of $20 million were no longer needed by the government, the Asian Development Bank cancelled the loan.

The previous government of PML-N completed five transactions at the value of Rs172.5bn out of the list of 39 entities approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation for ‘early implementation’. The five entities were United Bank Ltd, Pakistan Petroleum Ltd, Allied Bank Ltd, Habib Bank Ltd and NPCC.

There had been a total of 69 entities on the agenda of privatisation programme of the government.

The prime minister said that since the privatisation process has remained on the agenda of all successive governments and has continued unabated, it is important for the government to ensure that the terms of agreement for a transaction are not altered at any stage.

Published in Dawn, June 29th, 2018