Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Khalid Firoz, while appreciating the privatisation minister for carrying out the process in a transparent way, suggested to earmark some percentage of the proceeds of privatisation for infrastructure development.
Speaking as special guest at the concluding session of the National Privatisation Conference here, he said there is no harm in handing over the ownership to the foreigners except of strategic and security-related concerns. But if still there is pressure from the people, he said the government should give preference to the local investors in such cases, and they should also evolve a mechanism of setting up of consortium of leading industrialists for generating funds, he added.
"Government has been subsidising Rs 50 billion annually to Wapda and KESC but still they cannot supply electricity at reasonable rates. So we, the taxpayers are doubly suffered, first by paying taxes to the government which finances subsidy and second by paying higher rate of electricity," he argued.
He said the consideration that these state owned enterprises employ such a large number of employees was not justified, and as over employment in most cases was the root cause of their poor performance. The restructuring and privatisation would generate more employment opportunities in the long run, he added.
He said the privatisation process and the wholehearted response from the private sector helped restore the confidence on the entrepreneurial skills, and dynamism of private enterprises as well as it has sent positive signals to the foreign enterprises for making investment in Pakistan.
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