PRIVATISATION RESULTING GROWTH IN ECONOMY IN EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE MANNER-Awais Leghari

Islamabad, April 3, 2006

The privatisation process of public sector entities is resulting growth in the country's economy in an efficient and effective way. Mr. Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment stated this while chairing a meeting to review the progress and status of various  ongoing and upcoming public sector entities under the Privatisation Program here today.

The Minister said that the excellent progress made by the Privatisation Commission during the past three years generated good proceeds for the treasury for the debt retirement process and for the implementation of the government's poverty alleviation program. The pace of the privatisation process set by his predecessor would be continued, he added.

He further stated that the government's program; "Privatisation for the People" would be further geared up to transmit the benefits of privatisation to the common man of the country and gave the instructions to implement this policy of the government in letter and spirit, which was beneficial for the people of Pakistan. He directed the PC officials to target the privatisation  of ongoing transaction with a realistic time schedule.

The Minister was informed that since the inception of the Privatisation Commission 159 public sector entities have been privatised and out of 1063 cases in the courts since inception, 914 have been disposed off by the courts while only 149 cases were pending in the courts.

During a briefing the Minister was informed that the privatisation process of PSO, NITU, NPCC, PPL, OGDCL, Jamshoro Power Company, Faisalabad Electric Supply Company were at an advance stage while 34 SoQs received for the privatisation of SNGPL, SSGC were under the process of pre-qualification. The privatisation process of Services International Hotel land at Lahore, Heavy Mechanical Complex, Lasbella Textile Machinery, Hazara Phosphate and Lyallpur Chemical were also under process, the Minister was informed.