ISLAMABAD
Pakistan Peoples Party would unlikely to support the government in making legislation for amending the PIA Act 1956, which is essential for privatising the Pakistan International Airlines as committed with the International Monetary Fund.
"PIA's transaction structure has been sent to the Ministry of Finance for legislation for amending the PIA act 1956", Minister of State/Chairman Privatisation Commission Mohammad Zubair said while talking to The Nation. He did not give any deadline for privatising the national flag carrier, PIA.
Under the PIA Act of 1956, the government cannot transfer its shares to any other party.
The government could make the legislation for amending the PIA act 1956 in the upcoming session of the National Assembly, likely to start from October 26 2015. The government would easily pass the amendments from the National Assembly due to its majority in the house. However, the ruling party would need the support of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and other opposition parties to get the bill passed from the Senate. PML-N has 26 Senators and PPP has 27. Therefore, the government would seek help from other parties in general and from PPP specifically for amending the PIA act.
However, major opposition party, PPP, would unlikely to support the government in privatising the public sector entities, as the party is against privatisation programme. "Government should work on revival of national strategic institutes like Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) instead of going on a single track policy of Privatisation to please the IMF and selling all of Pakistan's assets", said PPP's Senator Saleem Mandviwalla, who is also Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Privatisation.
He further said that organisations like the PSM and PIA are national assets and can be revived if there is a political will. He said that some forces want to destabilise the public sector enterprises (PSEs) to make the process of privatisation smooth.
Pakistan has committed with the IMF to privatise the PIA by the end of March next year.
Earlier, addressing a press conference, Minister of State/Chairman Privatisation Commission Mohammad Zubair has dispelled the impression that Pakistan in privatising the public sector entities on the demand of International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. "Privatisation is the essential reform agenda of the PML-N government," he said and added that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif setup the Privatisation Commission in 1991.
He said that government is ensuring complete transparency in privatisation deals. There are four forums for making privatisation including evaluation committee, transaction committee, board of directors and cabinet committee on privatisation, which looked into the deal, he added.
Mohammad Zubair informed that privatisation of any entity normally takes two to three years in completion, which exceeded to three to four years in some cases like Habib Bank Limited and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL). He further informed that currently there are 25 active transactions.
He said in the case of FESCO, PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills, transaction structure has been approved. The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation has approved the transaction structure of Faisalabad Electric Supply Company and the marketing for this company has also started.
Talking about the privatisation of Pakistan Steel Mills, Minister of State said that federal government is waiting for the reply of Sindh government to buy the Mills. The CCoP had decided to offer Sindh government to acquire PSM, as the province showed interest in it, he remarked. Further progress would be made after response is received from Sindh Government.
"History will be written by privatising PIA and PSM", he said.
Minister of State said that government wanted to privatise the Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC) in order to reduce the financial burden on the national kitty. "This was the fourth attempts made by the government for the privatisation of HEC, as earlier one was made by Musharraf government, one Pakistan Peoples Party and other by incumbent government".