President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), Zafar Bakhtawari said that the loss incurring Public sector enterprises should be privatized which drain away a significant chunk of government resources and causing huge financial losses to the national exchequer. In a statement issued here on Thursday, he said the only feasible method of turning around these organizations and making them profitable is to privatize them by handing over their management to private sector professionals. He said that the public sector entities including Pakistan Railways, Wapda, PIA, Steel Mill and many other PSEs are incurring a loss of over Rs. 600 billion annually, therefore, they should be privatized because privatization reduces economic inefficiencies and fosters competition. The ICCI President said that despite being one of the most important institution, Pakistan Railways was facing the worst loss in history and has suffered losses more than Rs 52 billion in the last three years while PIA losses has also increased Rs. 150 billion. Thus, Privatization of Public Sector Enterprises (PSE) is essential for making them efficient and profitable, he maintained. Bakhtawari was of the view that policy makers should think out of the box to resolve the issues pertaining to public sector organizations as privatization was the best policy prescription to inject efficiency and profitability in the PSE. He said that the government was spending tax payer’s money on inefficient Public Sector Enterprises PSEs which is about 2 percent of GDP.
