The Privatisation Commission has put Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and other major entities' sell-off process on the back burner, at least for the first half of the current fiscal year. Sources in Privatisation Commission told Business Recorder on Tuesday that reversal of Pakistan Steel Mills Corporation (PSMC) privatisation was the major cause of delay in offering PSO and other public sector entities for bidding before December 31.
They said that other than PSO, NIT, SSGC, SNGPL, OGDC, PPL were some of the major companies whose privatisation was almost impossible in the next six months. They said that Privatisation Commission officials were totally confused over the post-PSMC sell-off situation and, despite repeated announcements by government top brass, they do not believe that the government would be able to come out of the PSMC shock to take up new companies for bidding.
They added that Privatisation Commission had informed about its position to International Monetary Fund IMF review mission vis-a-vis PSO and other major entities' sell-off for the current fiscal year.
It is interesting to note that Privatisation Minister Zahid Hamid has repeatedly announced to pursue the privatisation plan for 2006-07, to achieve the target. But his team clearly speaks of the question of credibility of Privatisation Commission after PSMC sell-off setback.
One member of his team, referring to Zahid's statements, said that the Minister's announcement were simply for the purpose of face saving and had nothing to do with the factual position.
He said the Privatisation Commission was working on only small transactions such as IPOs of different banks and OGDC, but no big company was now in the final stage for strategic sale before the end of the current calendar year.