LAHORE: Jamaate Islami Secretary General Liaqat Baloch on Monday said that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government had “no right to privatise major national institutions including the Pakistan International Airlines, the Karachi Steel Mill beside the Sui Gas Company while bypassing the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and the parliament.
Addressing a press conference, he called upon the government to stop the privatisation of leading national institutions on “throwaway prices”, only to “benefit its favourites.”
He said the JI would take up the matter in the National Assembly and if needs be, before the Supreme Court. He said the government was opening the floodgates of corruption through such an imprudent move.
JI Information Secretary Amirul Azeem was also present on the occasion.
Baloch said the Sui Northern and the Sui Southern companies were earning a profit of around fifteen billion rupees per annum. He said the government was planning to divide the companies into sub companies and the profitable part of the company was being privatised.
He also said the government’s decision would affect more than seven million consumers and render thousands of employees jobless.
Stating that the government had also announced the import of NLG and gas from TAPI, he added that there was no progress on the agreement for gas import from Iran due to the pressure from the United States.
The JI secretary general said that an international organisation KPNG, in its reports, had warned the government that further division of the gas companies would affect the supply system and cause huge losses during the next few years.
Baloch said it was unfortunate that the government was in confrontation with the Supreme Court on the corruption issue and was lowering the image of the supreme judiciary “only to protect the interests of one man” which, he said, was not in the interests of the country and the nation.
