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The pace of the privatisation will be further geared up to achieve the
impressive targets set for the privatisation process of public sector
entities. Mr. Zahid Hamid Federal Minister for Privatisation & Investment said
while chairing a meeting here today.
Mr. Zahid Hamid said that privatisation was a corner stone of the government's
economic and structural reform program, which has already started yielding
benefits in the shape of macro economic growth and reduction in poverty.
He further stated that under the overall guidance of President General Pervez
Musharraf and pursuant to the dynamic economic policies of Prime Minister Mr.
Shaukat Aziz, the Privatisation Commission has performed commendably during
the period of his predecessors Mr. Altaf Saleem, Dr. Hafeez Shaikh and Mr.
Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari.
The Minister said that the excellent progress made by the Privatisation
Commission during the past three years has generated enormous proceeds for the
Government treasury for the debt retirement and for the implementation of the
government's poverty alleviation program.
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. He directed the PC officials to implement
this policy of the government in letter and spirit, keeping in mind the PC's
Mission Statement, which called for 'privatisation in an open, fair and
transparent manner, for the benefit of the people of Pakistan in the Right
way, to the Right People at the Right Price.
While reviewing the progress and status of various ongoing and upcoming public
sector entities under the Privatisation Program 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 staged 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.
The Minister was further informed that since the inception of the
Privatisation Commission 160 public sector entities have been privatised with
a total proceeds worth Rs.395.761 billion while during the period November
2002 to date 34 entities were privatised with proceeds worth Rs.302.261
billion 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.