Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal on Wednesday said that Pakistan could learn a lot from the Malaysian experience of performance, deliverance and monitoring in the public sector. Addressing a press conference along with visiting Malaysian Minister for Performance, Dato Sri Idris Jala after one-day “Big Fast Result Seminar”, he said that success models of other countries would be replicated to transform the state-owned enterprises into profitable organizations.
Ahsan Iqbal said that the Malaysian Minister was on a two-day visit to Pakistan and attended the special meeting of the Federal Cabinet, in which he shared his country’s experience of development, performance, management and delivery. The visiting minister has also met the management of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and apprised them about turnaround of the Malaysian Airline into a profitable organization within two years, which was facing the worst-ever losses, he added. The minister said that PIA was facing Rs. 3 billion loss per month and its losses have reached Rs. 36 billion per year for its 16,000 employees due to mismanagement and corruption. Minister for Planning and Development informed that every aircraft has about 700 staffers as compared to 120 member staff in other international airlines.
He said that the national airline has faced huge losses during last government when it restored its 6000 employees with their previous dues, besides inducting new employees. The prime minister has already warned the management of the airline that no more bailout package would be provided from the tax payers’ money. He said that the PM had given the management three points for turning around the organization by either finding a strategic partner or privatizing it or completely closing it down to save Rs 36 billion of nation. Iqbal said that visiting minister also met with federal secretaries, which would help to improve the performance of government and civil services in the country. He said that Malaysia has proved that progress and development could be achieved by formulating better policies and planning and implementing these polices in letter and spirit. To a question, he said that unfortunately from 1999-2013, no proper program for development was formulated which resulted in different crisis and challenges including energy shortfall which was a major impediment in economic growth and progress. He said that to overcome these challenges, Ministry of Planning and Development was established and efforts were underway to formulate 2025 program in which about 5000 professional youth would be involved under young development program to get benefit from their talent. Speaking on the occasion, Malaysian Minister for Performance Idris Jala said that Pakistan required political stability, conducive climate for investment for economic development. He said that there were good policies and action plan for development but it needed proper implementation to translate these planes in practical development with spirit of accountability, transparency. Pakistan is rich in natural resources and has a rich culture, heritage and traditions which can be translated into national progress and development, he added.
