According to a Business Recorder news item “PSM transaction: Ministers briefed about probable timelines” carried by the newspaper last Thursday, “the ministers were briefed about the current status and progress and probable timeline for the completion of the PSM transaction. The issues related to the formation of a new subsidiary, use of jetty and conveyor and others were deliberated upon in detail.”

It is quite unlikely that the government really wants to privatise PSM. The lack of any meaningful effort on the part of successive governments speaks volumes about the degeneration of a profit-making PSM into a white elephant. The incumbent government, too, is still dithering over whether to privatise it. The government has been sending mixed signals about its policy in relation to this dysfunctional mega industrial unit even after retrenchment of a very large number of its employees.

Mohsin Raza (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021