The government had decided three months ago that in order to get the economy out of trouble and put the country on the path of development and prosperity, all other government institutions and departments except the strategic ones will be sold to the private sector. The privatization of the institutions was being done. The five-year privatization program covering 2024 to 2029 has been approved in the federal cabinet meeting held on Thursday under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. During this time, 24 institutions will be sold to the private sector in stages.
Among them PIA, House Building Finance Corporation, 9 electricity distributors and 4 generation companies, Utility Stores Corporation, State Life Insurance and Pakistan Reinsurance Company are at the top. The Cabinet has decided that this process will be completed soon. Under the proposed program, privatization will be completed in three phases. The sale of PIA and House Building Finance Corporation will be completed soon, after which the turn of electricity distribution companies will come, thus Faisalabad, Islamabad and Gujranwala in the first phase, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar in the second phase. Companies in Hazara, Sukkur and Hyderabad will be taken over by the private sector.
It should be noted that the National Privatization Committee finalized the five-year privatization program in its meeting on August 2, 2024, which was sent to the federal cabinet for final approval. In the light of 24 more privatizations will be done successfully. All this situation is happening because the amount of external debt due to the country has reached 84 thousand billion rupees in recent days. Except for taking new loans, the government does not have the resources to repay it. The major factors behind this state of bankruptcy are billions of rupees worth of government expenditure, salaries, allowances and pensions, while every year the huge amount of money left over after repayment of huge foreign loan installments and the interest owed on them. Due to weak system and corruption, only 33% of the revenue target goes to the national exchequer.
The export sector continues to suffer from deficits, while imports continue to make up for the deficit. The State Bank's reserves have not exceeded 22 billion dollars to date, and this also has to be met from commercial banks, which In contrast, the reserves of the State Bank of India alone at this time exceed 600 billion dollars. The recent seven months of the current government can be described as the continuation of April 2022 to September 2023 in terms of economic reforms, under which the loss-making government institutions. Privatization program was revised. Privatization started in 1988 and the top 4 banks were in it. In the light of the past, this task is no less than a challenge, which is going to start with PIA. Its main condition is transparency and other institutions should ensure that it does not create unemployment, but creates new employment opportunities. The development of the private sector fosters competition and attracts new investments. Conditions arise, increase in exports and permanent relief from debt should be its motto.
