Speakers at the meeting of Shura Hamdard Karachi Chapter urged the government to promote private-public partnership and self-reliance in order to make the country dependent on its own resources.
The meeting was held on Thursday on the theme: “Privatisation of institutions” presided over by Haq Nawaz Akhtar, former chairman of Pakistan Steel Mills at a local hall.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Shahid Hasan Siddiqui, an economist said that the money received by the privatisation of national institutions must have been spent on infrastructure and social sector. But the governments had spent this huge money on reducing the budget deficit which was result of corruption, mismanagement and tax evasion, he added.
A loss of Rs 5000 billion has been incurring to government exchequer annually due to corruption, mismanagement, tax evasion and avoiding imposition of taxes on some sectors of income in the country, he said. In 22 years from 1991 to 2013 the governments that came in power in the country had obtained an amount of near about Rs 477 billion out of the sale of PTCL and four banks, but, instead of spending this huge money on social sectors 90 per cent of this amount had been spent on the payment of loans and only 10 per cent was allotted to social sector, he commented. “The act of privatisation was a disputed deal of loss and failure. The balance amount of 800 million of PTCL sale has not been paid to Pakistan so far, though the PTCL was running in profit,” he concluded.
Haq Nawaz Akhtar said the act of privatisation would not be successful in the country because the industries which had been nationalised or privatised in the past were dead now or near to die because of lack of experience and ability in the managers who were responsible to run them.
He was of the view that the strategic industry should never be privatised and be remained in public sector. “Had the PIA not been a government institution, Pakistan would have not been able to become an atomic power as this airline had provided the country with those things that were essential and not possible to obtain through a private airline. The PIA had given training to Singapore Airlines and Emirate Airlines,” he commented.
Naushaba Khalil said the failure of national institutions was the actual failure of government and its management. It was not a good tendency on the part of government that it wanted to get rid of national institutions for the sake of its comfort.
Col (r) Mukhtar Ahmed Butt was of the opinion that it was good to privatise those institutions which were running in loss, but to do the same with those institutions giving profits was not only unwise but also damaging for the country. He quoted the example of PTCL which, he said, was running in profit and sold out in throw away price. Authorities responsible for the sale of PTCL were so in hurry that they had not taken even full amount as a big amount was still unpaid to government of Pakistan by the bidder, he added.
“When the government says that trade is not the business of government then why it has raised a new airline – Pakistan Airways,” questioned. The failure of PIA and Pak Steel Mills was the outcome of over-staffing, corruption, political intervention and selling of international routes to other companies, he maintained.
Dr Wiquar Ahmed Rizvi said that once the PIA was called a great airline but subsequently it became a failure. This was because of corruption, mismanagement and over-staffing, he added.
Engineer Anwarul Haq Siddiqui said that privatisation was the basis of capital economy and always run on five business principles of maximisation of profit, obtaining big market share, innovation in business, providing technical base and good administration. “If we will try to run our commercial intuitions on the basis of these principles, we will have no need to privatise our institutions. The failure of PIA and Pak Steel is result of mismanagement and not being run on business principles,” he added. Dr Abubaker Sheikh said the PIA and Pak Steel could be the successful institutions if good managers were posted there. Dr Mirza Arshad Ali Beg and Ms Shamim Kazmi also spoke. Shura in a unanimous resolution condoled the death of its member and literary figure, Azhar Abbas Hashmi, who recently died in a road accident.
[…] Source link to Read more […]
Comments are closed.