Senior Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Minister Sirajul Haq has said that there is no wisdom in privatising state institutions, which actually require to be purged of corruption. He was speaking at a national labour conference at Aiwan-e-Iqbal, held under the aegis of National Labour Federation (NLF) on Monday. The minister said that Pakistan was losing about Rs 15 billion to corruption every day. "Does this mean the rulers should sell out the whole country," he asked.
Criticising the government efforts for attracting foreign investment, the minister said that in a situation where billions of rupees owned by former President Zardari, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, other politicians and capitalists were lying in foreign banks, why should foreigners invest in this country. "If 300 billion dollars owned by Pakistanis deposited in foreign banks is transferred to the national banks, the country would neither need foreign investment and aid nor would we require selling out our national institutions," he observed.
Sirajul Haq said that the privatisation of state institutions in the past had had disastrous consequences, rendering millions of workers jobless. He was of the view that the entire economic system of the country had been made hostage through the multi national companies. Referring to drone attacks, the minister said the people of KP had got tired of lifting dead bodies of their loved ones and if the federal government did not take any quick step to end drone strikes, the provincial government would take a decision on its own.
He alleged that the federal government was not taking the issue seriously and there was a mysterious silence about it so far. Addressing the moot, NLF chief Shamsud Din Swati said that the union had organised the conference to convey the workers' voice to the government on the privatisation issue. He declared that if the rulers tried to sell out national institutions to their cronies on throw away prices, they would face tough resistance every where. The conference was also addressed by representatives of Railways PREM Union and Wada Peigham Union.
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