Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and privatisation, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla has urged the government to work towards the revival of national strategic entities such as Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) instead of going on a single track policy of Privatisation "to please the IMF".
In a statement on Wednesday, Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said that organisations like Pakistan Steel Mill and PIA are national assets and can be revived if there is a political will. He said that some forces want to destabilise the public sector enterprises (PSEs) to make the process of privatisation smooth. Senator Mandviwalla demanded that a full-fledged enquiry should be held in the affairs of PIA from 2005 to 2015. It should be investigated to identify the forces behind the two strikes that PIA experienced.
He asked "It is time we investigate and identify those forces responsible for bringing PIA to this state, irrespective of the fact whose lobby they belonged to. If they were appointees of our (PPP) government or those supported by the then opposition (PML-N), we must bring all to account for their misdoings". Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said "If this task is given to the Senate Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue and Privatisation, we will investigate this in six weeks and bring the facts to the people of Pakistan. Committee will identify the forces responsible for bringing the PIA in present situation."
He said that the Committee will make out all its efforts to revive the PIA, "I firmly believe that PIA can still be made a profitable organisation. He said that the Finance Minister is constantly borrowing from the IMF to build up Pakistan's FE reserves and give a false impression of revival of economy; all he is doing is overburdening the national exchequer so that the next government is bogged down with these loans.
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