Chairman, Privatisation Commission (PC), Muhammad Zubair, has said that the federal government is initiating privatisation process of power sector companies, assuring that there will be complete fairness and openness in the process.
Talking to newsmen at the launching ceremony of Club100-Senior Executive Network here on Saturday, Muhammad Zubair, who is also Minister of State for Privatisation, said that "I don't know why the KESC's (known KE) privatisation agreement was keep secret. However, we have decided to initiate privatisation process in a very transparent manner by taking all stakeholders including labour unions on board." He maintained that power companies' privatisation agreements will be made public and nothing will be kept secret in this regard.
Revealing the power sector privatisation plan he said that the federal government has planned structural privatisation of the power sector companies by acquiring a strategic partner to run these companies in an effective manner.
"The federal cabinet has already approved the structural privatisation of some eight power sector companies and financial advisors for these companies have already been appointed," he added.
Under the programme, he said, it has been decided to privatise one power sector company every month and Faisalabad Electric Supply Company Ltd (FESCO) has been selected first, Zubair added.
"Initially, under the structural privatisation programme some 74 percent of the shares of the FESCO will sold with management control, however the government will retain remaining 26 percent share and will be on the board of the company", he added.
Zubair said that last week Privatisation Commission (PC) with the support of the World Bank, United States Energy Association and US-Pakistan Business Council held a successful road show in US to attract investors for investment in Pakistan's power sector companies including Generation Company (Gencos) and Distribution Companies (Discos). "The event was very thriving as leading US companies including General Electric participated in the road show," he added.
Chairman PC said that foreign investors were satisfied with the country's current economic and security situation and hoped that FESCO privatisation will another successful transaction.
He said that privatisation was not an easy task as it required a long process to settle the legal, employment and financial issues to keep the transaction transparent.
"Prime Minister has already directed for protecting employees' interests and before initiating privatisation process labor unions of all power companies has been invited for dialogs to take them on board on privatisation," he added.
He mentioned that Pakistan has already raised some $1.7 billion through capital market transactions to build the country forex reserve. UBL, HBL and PTCL are some of the successful example of privatisation transactions. Presently, not only Pakistan but leading countries are initiating privatisation process and marketing abroad is a part of this process, he said.
Talking about the Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) privatisation Chairman PC said that cabinet committee had decided to first offer it to Sindh government as it was willing to acquire PSM. "It will be better for the employees and mill, if Sindh government acquire this national asset under a joint venture process," he added.
Earlier, addressing the ceremony he said that despite several challenges, Pakistan's economy was performing well. "We saw militancy and three wars, which directly hurt the country's stability and economic growth. Each war weakens Pakistan on economic and political front and we started a new economic journey after each war," he added.
"Pakistan needs support of the elite class to progress and prosper and this is the right time to sacrifice by sparing some time for the country," he said.
He said that relations with Afghanistan and India also directly hurting the country's economic growth. Tension with India has forced Pakistan to manage a huge armed force, besides spending more on defence.
On the occasion, Arif Habib, Chairman Arif Habib Group, on behalf of Club-100 presented memento to the Chairman Privatisation Commission Muhammad Zubair. Zeshan Afzal President and Founder of Club-100, Irfan Siddique President and CEO Meezan Bank, Khalid S. Subhani President Engro Corporation Limited, Asad Ali Shah Managing Partner Deloitte, Ayaz Ahmed, Head of Acquisition and Investment Habib Bank Limited and Dr Ghaffar Billo Chairman HANDS Foundation were also spoke.