Minister of State and Chairman Privatisation Commission, Muhammad Zubair has said the government had privatised five State Owned Entities (SOEs) worth of Rs 170 billion during its current regime. "Habib Bank Ltd, United Bank Ltd, Allied Bank Ltd, National Power Construction Company and Pakistan Petroleum Ltd are the main entities which have successfully been privatised by the current government," Muhammad Zubair said while talking to media on Saturday.
He said the government was implementing its policy of privatisation with complete transparency in the process. The Chairman PC said during the privatisation process of SOEs, the government took broad-based decisions for ensuring accountability. Zubair said at the moment nine SOEs including Pakistan Airlines (PIA) and Pakistan Steel Mills were included in the active list of privatisation. He said first of four stages of privatisation process of PIA and PSM had been completed while further work on the process was under way.
He said the Sindh Government had shown its interest to own PSM. He said because of some technical issues, the process of PIA was delayed and it would be ensured that the whole process would be done under the privatisation ordinance. He said the government was also restructuring some institutions included in the privatisation list to enhance their capacity. The Chairman Privatisation said "we are looking all aspects including financial, legal, human resources and technical process for privatising any national institution."
Relying to a question, he said State Life Corporation had also been included in the active list of privatisation for giving good service to the people. The process of privatisation takes more time as there were different phases the Privatisation Commission had to follow to ensure transparency and accountability. He said opposition and some sections of media were opposing privatisation without any ground, adding after privatisation these entities would ensure good services to the people.