Second year of privatisation plan to draw a blank

As the current calendar year is coming to its end, the government''s privatisation programme has been ''zero-plus-zero'', with not even a single deal to its credit in 2010, like 2009.
The only performance of the Privatisation Commission, which is responsible for offloading the state-owned enterprises, and phase them out to the private sector to enhance these entities'' efficiency and subsequently production, is securing jobs of dozens of consultants at exorbitant salaries and other perks and privileges, and has hundreds of its employees without maturing even a single proceeding to contribute to the ailing economy in the past two consecutive years. Its consultants and employees have nothing to work at and make the privatisation programme worth mentioning but to wait for passing time without any work. Resultantly, like 2009, the privatisation proceeds in 2010 have also been zero. The Privatisation Commission authorities themselves are not clear as to how they should start work and what they can offer to investors. Background interviews of the concerned authorities suggest that the Privatisation Commission itself is like a stranded ship whose captain himself has no destination to reach.
"We have nothing to do or decide as there is no privatisation of any public sector entity, as such, for the last two years" said an official of the Commission. Officials gave various reasons which have made the privatisation programme stagnant, In their view, Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation''s failed sell-off bid and getting Karachi Electric Supply Company (KESC) and Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) into trouble played a key role in turning privatisation programme into a complete failure.
PTCL and KESC are among those transactions for whom the respective governments took huge credit and termed them as extremely successful deals, and transferred their management to the buyers also. However, post-privatisation scenario proved these claims mere tall claims and nothing more. PTCL is in hot water since its sale to Etislat of United Arab Emirate (UAE), and there is a serious controversy between the government of Pakistan and the buyer over payment of $800 million of the deal. There seems no end to this controversy. In the case of KESC, its performance in post-privatisation scenario is being questioned at every forum. It has turned into a nightmare to the consumers with no light at the end of the tunnel which could keep the consumers'' hope of good days alive. Cognisant of the programme failure, the Privatisation Commission has adopted a new approach of offering the public sector entities to investors on private-public partnership basis. It is listing a number of key government entities on the new list, but will it work or not, only the time would confirm.