PAC stops privatisation of Pakistan Post

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has directed federal secretary to halt privatisation process of Pakistan Postal Services till the perusal of the whole record by the parliamentary committee and has also categorically stated that public asset could not be allowed to dole out among the foreign companies while keeping the parliament in the dark.

PAC members raised suspicions on the government policy and questioned why it was going to outsource Rs 60 billion market to the private companies and why it itself did not take interest to harvest this market while introducing reforms in the department.

PAC meeting was held at the Parliament House here on Tuesday with Syed Khurshid Shah in the chair to discuss the privatisation of Pakistan Post and the audit objections on Commerce Ministry and Ministry of Postal Services.

All members of Public Accounts Committee have also decided in unison to seek explanation from NAB chairman about inordinate delay into investigation of NICL mega corruption scams, a subsidiary department of Commerce Ministry.

On the petition of Dr Arif Alvi regarding the privatisation of postal services, federal secretary briefed the committee that the government has formulated a policy to outsource some services of Pakistan Post in order to make this loss earning department of government as viable and wanted to convert it into a profitable one.

The secretary told the meeting that Pakistan Post was incurring loss of Rs 10 billion annually since the political government took the charge of this ministry as before the political government it was earning profit of more than Rs 1 billion annually.

Khurshid Shah indicated to form a sub-committee to investigate the reason of the loss the Pakistan Post was incurring for the last ten years.

Federal secretary told that Rs 2 billon loan has been taken from Korean bank on 0.5 per cent mark up for introducing reforms in Pakistan postal services and one private person Moeen and another state bank officer Karn Dos have been hired for consultancy purpose as the both individuals have started their work.

The secretary said that the whole matter of joint venture was being done in transparent manner as tender for this purpose was floated and letters of interest from the private companies were sought.

He said management and operation works would not be given to any company the successful company would be assigned to invest in the department and profit from these investment would be shared by the companies and the government according to agreed formula.

PAC members observed that reforms must be introduced in the Pakistan Post but it could not be at the cost the public exchequer loss and all members vowed to protect the public assets from going into the hand of the corrupt people.