ISLAMABAD: The government on Thursday formally decided to wind up the dysfunctional Sarmaya-e-Pakistan Ltd (SPL), which was created during the PTI tenure to handle the financial and governance affairs of more than 441 state-owned enterprises (SOEs) for their turnaround, following models used in Malaysia and Singapore.

The decision was made at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Ente­rprises, which deferred a decision on exempting two Sui gas companies and other energy sector SOEs from International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS 14 & 9) due to ma­­ssive receivables arising from circular debt.

The meeting, presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, also approved the boards of directors of several other SOEs, most of which had already received Prime Minister approval.

An official statement said the committee reviewed and approved a summary from the Finance Division regarding the winding up of SPL, noting its redundancy after recent cha­nges in the governance framework for SOEs. Most of these entities are now monitored by the central monitoring unit of the Ministry of Finance and are governed under different corporate governance rules, while others fall under the Pakistan Sovereign Wealth Fund.

SPL was created on paper by the PTI government in its early days to turn around over 440 SOEs. However, it was never operationalised, as the majority of cabinet members supported an alternative institutional reform proposed by Dr Ishrat Husain, which continues to be implemented today.

The committee also approved the appointment of four independent and three ex-officio members to the board of directors of the Special Purpose Vehicle for the Thar Coal Rail Connectivity Project.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2026