Business Recorder op-ed writer Farhat Ali in his latest contribution to the newspaper titled "Public property being readied for sale" has presented the right diagnosis of our public sector enterprises (PSEs) by arguing, among other things, that "the main flaw is that these enterprises are driven by vested interests and vote politics of political leaderships. There is no way that entities such as PIA and Pakistan Steel Mills can be made viable in a market driven by good value for money and service. One may witness some better optics but no change can be expected in the inherently flawed public sector entities."
One of the reasons behind the downfall of our major PSEs is that our successive governments turned these entities into employment bureaus. It is quite clear that governments' direct and indirect actions often affected the working of PSEs. The PTI government is required to consider adopting the Singapore model for PSE management in order to create a culture of meritocracy in the country.