Former Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif who has since stepped into the shoes of his elder brother and disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif had during last couple of years of his five years second tenure had very triumphantly established as many as 56 public sector companies one after the other with the claim of good governance and deliverance.
It is a bitter fact that these large number of public companies were being established in addition to about 45 administrative departments without any reduction of staff in these departments and thus the public exchequer was being burdened unnecessarily and quite heavily.
The myth of these large number of public sector companies is being exposed gradually after the apex court of the country and NAB have started looking into their affairs. More than a dozen of these so-called white elephant public sector companies were only on paper and absolutely non-functional.
The Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of these public sectors were hired on quite hefty contract money thus setting a deplorable example of favouritism and nepotism in the name of good governance and deliverance.
It is good to note that under directions of the apex court of the country, extra hefty contract money is to be retrieved from the CEOs of these public sector companies which are just a burden on the public exchequer. This is indeed appreciable. It will also be appreciable if these companies which are non-functional and are in parallel to the administrative departments in terms of working be abolished forthwith and public money so spent on these companies without any useful returns should be retrieved from the former Punjab Chief Minister in all fairness.
M.I.H.KHAN, KHAN,
Lahore, July 31.