'Privatisation process to be transparent'

Federal Minister for Ports, Shipping and Privatisation Syed Naveed Qamar has maintained that the procedure of privatisation would be made transparent, while the Public Accounts Committee will make audit of the privatisation during previous regime. The minister stated this while replying to questions of media persons at a dinner, hosted by Zulfiqar Halipoto here late on Sunday night.
"The peoples' government was accountable before the masses, therefore the government of Pakistan Peoples Party and its allied parties would not initiate such efforts, which could be harmful for the interest of the people and the country", the minister said.
He said that no transparency was shown in privatisation of the institutions as well as the affairs of Gawadar Port, therefore, the Public Accounts committee would conduct audits of such irregularities and submit its report. By adopting such procedure, the present government was desired to make the procedure of privatisation more transparent and if necessary, make changes in existing system, he added.
Besides activating Gawadar Port, the minister said that the present government was also considering the establishment of a port at Keti Bandar. The development of Gawadar would be carried out by taking the people of the area into confidence so that maximum number of local people could get job opportunities, he said. He added that meetings with concerned authorities of Singapore government had already been started for development of Gawadar Port.
The minister said Pakistan was a suitable country for investment and the present government was making efforts to bring maximum foreign investments to improve different sectors of life. Replying to a question, the minister said the government had focused its attention towards controlling of price hike so that the people could get essential commodities according to genuine prices.
The government had initiated efforts to curb the menace of hoarding of wheat, sugar, edible oil and Ghee, the minister said, adding that the monopoly of factory owners would also be eliminated. About incident of Sindh Abadgar Sugar Mill, the minister stated that enquiry report in this direction would be completed within couple of week.