The events of 12 May should be an eye opener to Islamabad, if it is serious in arresting the continued losses piled up by state owned corporations. Can anybody imagine the intensive interference in routine day to day working of these organisations and policies, by powerful coalition partners of the junta and the khaki establishment.
Today major executive appointees to state owned corporations, who enjoy patronage of such parties and whom they oblige, are at the helm, inspite of the fact that some of them are simple graduates, while their subordinates are highly qualified professionals.
A senior executive of a state owned sector company has a Financial Monitoring SVP, with a Masters degree in science and no experience in finance or any qualification, to justify his appointment, except patronage of his political godfathers. This company has many qualified and honest employees of varied ethnicities inclusive of bright muhajir locals, who are bypassed when promotions to senior cadre are made.
Corporate culture that prevails in Karachi and Islamabad has been subjected to onslaught political blackmail for the past two decades, by every regime including the present one. This interference has increased of late. Today every state owned corporation is under seige by retired khakis and incompetent unqualified officers, willing to oblige their benefactors at the cost of commercial interests of the organisation, that they are supposed to serve. Losses incurred by some of these semi autonomous corporations are to the tune of over a billion rupees every month.
It is time that corporate ethics are enforced, financial auditing carried out according to international practices, and merit prevails instead of mediocrity. A complete overhaul of the system alone will save these semi autonomous corporations. They must be saved from ethnic biases and blackmail, by taking evasive action, including the placement of their offices to safer locations. Privatisation alone is not the remedy, as we have seen the fate of KESC.
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