Minister of State for Privatisation Muhammad Zubair has said that no OGDCL employee would lose his job or change its management while divesting company shares through capital market transaction. In a statement here on Wednesday, State Minister said that OGDCL transaction is not privatisation and it is simply offloading of shares.
He clarified that there will be no change in management and no separation of employee will take place as a result of this transaction. "We are not privatising OGDCL and we are divesting its shares through capital market transactions for building up our foreign exchange reserves and accelerate the economic activities in the country", he added. The minister said that employees of OGDCL and common Pakistanis can get benefit from current offloading as shares can be purchased by anyone at special price whether employee or common citizen.
In response to the Raza Rabbani's statement, the State Minister said that such transaction is not happening for the first time as similar transactions had been done earlier in 2006. Even during PPPP regime from 2008-13, the minister said the privatisation was very much on the agenda including similar transactions. He said it was attempted earlier in 2010 to make such transactions in OGDCL but it could not be materialised successfully. A total of 27 companies were privatised during second tenure of PPPP which included both profitable and loss making entities.