KARACHI                 -              Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday supported a move to privatise two RLNG power projects and banks if the rights of employees and consumers were protected properly.

He met with a seven-member delegation of Privatization Commission of Pakistan led by Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammadmian Soomro.

Federal Minister Mohammadmian Soomro led delegation comprising Member Privatization Commission (PC) Khurrram Shahzad, Financial Advisor PC Rabial Akhundzad, Samreen Zehra, Consultants Asad Rasool, Zayed Maud and others called on Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah on Friday at CM House.

The chief minister was assisted by Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, SMBR Qazi Shahid Parvez, Secretary Finance Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Energy Musadiq Khan, Secretary Investment.

Privatization Commission Chairman Mohammad Mian Soomro said that the federal cabinet had finalized some of the projects, banks and real estate assets for privatization. He added that since those projects were national assets, therefore he wanted the take provincial governments into confidence for their privatization.

Soomro said that the projects for which bids have been invited include two RLNG based power plants at Havelli Bahadur Shah and Balloki respectively.

He added each of the plant has the capacity of generating 1230 MW electricity. The other projects were SME Bank Ltd and First Women bank, he said.

The chief minister said that the power tariff of both the powers plants must be protected so that the private party, after privatization, could not charge high rate for power generation. He added that similarly, the commission has to protect the employment and rights of the employees working there.

Murad Shah said that as far as SME Bank and First Women bank privatization was concerned, he repeated his request for protecting the rights and employment of the people working in the bank. He also insisted on processing the entire privatization process transparently and his government would be supporting the commission.

The chairman Privatization commission also said that the cabinet has approved privatization of the real estate assets such as Services Intel Hotel Lahore, Jinnah Convention Centre Islamabad, Divestment of Minority sharing in leading oil and gas, OGDC and PPL and others.

The chief minister welcoming the delegation said that his government has no objection in their privatization but just he wanted transparency and protection of their employees.