To privatise or not

Faced with criticism from parliamentarians belonging to both the Treasury and Opposition benches over its announcement to privatise the Qadirpur gas field, the government has wisely decided to step back and postpone its privatisation bid. Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the Senate last Thursday that Parliament would be taken into confidence before the gas field is privatised.
A similar assurance was offered a day earlier by the Privatisation Minister, Naveed Qamar, in the National Assembly, saying the government would finalise the sale plan after developing a consensus. Critics of this privatisation plan, both inside and outside Parliament, have at least three major arguments to make. First, Qadirpur holds the largest gas reserves after Sui, an estimated 70 percent of which remains unutilised. It is a strategic asset, they maintain, that needs to be kept under national ownership. Second, the full extent of Qadirpur gas field's potential is yet to be established.
Therefore, if it is sold (the privatisation proposal seeks to sell 37 percent of its shares together with transfer of operational control) at this point, it will be at an outrageously low price since it would be done without taking into account the gas that is still hidden in the field's deeper confines. The third argument is a broader one and is related to the recent collapse of the unregulated market economies, with leading governments even in countries like the US and Britain stepping in and arranging either bailouts or nationalisation of certain entities.
At a time like this, goes the argument, a country like ours where rampant poverty places a big responsibility on the government's shoulders to give precedence to public welfare, there is need, perhaps, for a serious policy rethink with regard to the privatisation process started in the 1990s in the wake of an international pro-market reform hype. These are all powerful enough arguments, and deserve to be sorted out in informed debates within the nation's highest legislative forum.
For now the PPP-led government deserves to be commended for its decision to postpone this privatisation proposal in deference to public opinion as expressed by members of Parliament. Which, in fact, is a strong characteristic of democratically elected governments. Since they draw strength from public support, they can ill-afford to run counter to public opinion and do whatever they deem fit. We do not have to go far to look for examples of undemocratic governments implementing decisions to serve their narrow purposes without bothering to pay heed to what the people thought of them.
Such examples abounded in our recent past when General Musharraf's government rode roughshod over public concerns to go ahead and do all sorts of things concerning politics and the economy, including the privatisation process. Many of its actions did not sit well with the demands of justice and fair-play. Confronted as it is by major challenges in the economic, security and political arenas, the present elected government must try and develop a national consensus on all these issues.