Fawad Hasan Fawad said that ‘Shahbaz Sharif has never been a supporter of privatisation.’ (Photo: Reuters)
Former Federal Minister of Finance Miftah Ismail of the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Hasan Fawad, Principal Secretary of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, have claimed that the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has decided to sell Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) despite the process of privatization. don’t want
In a private TV program of Pakistan, the two former ministers, who have been close to the Muslim League leadership, blamed the government’s decision-making and lack of consent for the failed privatization of PIA in recent days.
Miftah Ismail, who is currently the Secretary General of Awam Pakistan Party, directly accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, saying that these two personalities are not serious about privatization and so far they have succeeded in privatizing any institution. could not be
He said that the government deliberately did not listen to the businessmen interested in purchasing PIA so that they would be separated from the process as neither Shehbaz Sharif nor Ishaq Dar wanted this privatisation.
Miftah Ismail said that due to this behavior, two major groups with experience in the airline business, Air Arabia and Pegasus Airlines, left the process.
Fawad Hasan Fawad, former Caretaker Minister for Privatization and closely related to PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif, also supported Miftah Ismail.
He said that ‘Shahbaz Sharif has never been a supporter of privatization and he always wants government institutions to work for the people.’
“It is surprising that the Privatization Committee of the Cabinet, headed by Foreign Minister (Ishaq Dar), approved the privatization with one bidder and said that the bidding process with the same bidder should go ahead,” he said. should be extended, it has caused great damage to the process of privatization in Pakistan.’
Fawad Hasan Fawad said that the government’s lack of seriousness in privatization of PIA is reflected in an advertisement inviting applications for the position of Chief Executive Officer of PIA.
If the government has to appoint a new CEO of PIA, then what was the need for the privatization process. If PIA were to be sold, the private entity buying it would have installed an experienced CEO of its own accord.‘
Haroon Sharif, the former head of Pakistan’s Board of Investments, also agrees with these views.
Talking to Urdu News, he said that ‘Ishaq Dar does not want privatization because he wants his control and he wants whatever happens to be done according to his will.’
“The Union Government does not recognize the process of privatisation‘
But the main reason for the failure of this process of privatization is that the coalition government does not recognize this process. Pakistan People’s Party, the main coalition party of the government, had nationalized the institutions, then they have recruited so many people in PIA. Hence, he says, the privatization of PIA has a ‘political cast’ and hence the process lacks political support.‘
‘There is no government strategy for privatisation‘
According to Haroon Sharif, the government has no strategy to make this process successful.
‘On the one hand, they say that the government will no longer do business, so why is it making government-to-government (G-to-G) agreements with other governments?‘
They did not like to negotiate, their priority was not to privatize but to save government unity and save their positions.‘
He said that the third major reason for the failure of privatization is that the government has converted the Privatization Commission from an autonomous body into a ministry and it has left the professionals and replaced them with a bureaucracy that does not So there is no aptitude nor much interest in the job because they have their own interests.
‘IMF’s pressure for PIA privatization not to save tax revenue deficit’
However, according to the Executive Director of Sustainable Policy Development Institute, Dr. Abid Silhari, the claim that the government is not interested in privatizing PIA does not seem to be true as there is pressure on the government to sell it.
He said that during the tenure of PML-N, privatization has taken place before and still the pressure of IMF is forcing them to privatize.
In response to Dr. Abid Sulhari, Haroon Sharif says that there is definitely pressure from the IMF, but it is not for the privatization of PIA, but only that the loss incurred by it includes the tax of the taxpayers. There should not be and the tax revenue should not be affected by this deficit.
‘Sell small units first to gain investor confidence‘
According to Haroon Sharif, the government cannot immediately privatize PIA even if it wants to, because the entire process of privatization has collapsed due to the failure of one bid.
‘Now the confidence of the investors will be restored only when the government will successfully privatize three or four small units leaving the big enterprises. And this will happen only when the decisions are made by professionals and not by politicians who want to save their political unity in the process of privatization.‘
Federal Government Spokesperson Rana Ehsan Afzal, when contacted for the government’s stand on the matter, said that he would discuss it soon.
