SENATOR WAQAR DIRECTS PC TO SPEED UP BESOS IMPLEMENTATION
41,834 EMPLOYEES OF EIGHT ENTITIES RECEIVED FREE OF COST SHARES
MORE TRUSTS BEING ESTABLISHED IN SOEs

Islamabad, March 15, 2010

 
The full impact of Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) will be felt after its benefits would start transmitting to the workers, which needs to be implemented on fast track basis. Senator Waqar Ahmed Khan Federal Minister for Privatisation directed the Privatisation Commission (PC) officials while chairing a meeting here today.

The Minister said that President Asif Ali Zardari and the Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani attach great importance to the scheme, which ensures empowerment of the workers who have devoted their sweat and blood for the development and progress of their respective entities. The scheme is in accordance with the vision of Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto, he said.

The Minister said that BESOS was the hallmark of the present Government’s pro-workers policies, which would ensure the improvement in efficiency, quality and production and increase the value and profit of the company. It would make the workers responsible in further improving the overall performance of the entity and their representation on the Board of Directors would directly involve them in the decision making process for the progress of the entity, he said.

The Minister added that the scheme was historic and would usher a new era of workers revolution who were being given free of cost 12 % of the GoP shares in the SOEs and the entities already privatised. The scheme is not limited only to the non-privatised entities as it also includes all the privatised entities having GoP shares.

Under BESOS so far 41,834 employees have been given shares certificates (12 % of GOP shares) in five entities namely Heavy Mechanical Complex (HMC), Oil & Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL), Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL), Pakistan State Oil (PSO), Pakistan International airlines (PIA), National Power Construction Company (NPCC) and NESPAK. BESOS is effective from August 14, 2009 and subsequently the eligible workers will receive benefits according to the set formula within the stipulated period. The scheme is expected to benefit around 500,000 employees of 80 entities. The 80 SOEs identified for the scheme include 16 listed and 33 unlisted public companies, 17 private companies and 14 SOEs established under special Act/ Ordinance.

The meeting was informed that 14 BESOS Trusts have been registered for implementation of the Scheme in Pakistan Machine Tool Factory (PMTF), Heavy Electrical Complex (HEC), Jamshoro Power Company (JPC), National Investment Trust (NIT), Pakistan National Shipping Corporation (PNSC), Lakhra Coal Development Company (LCDC), National Construction (NC), National Insurance Company (NIC), National Telecommunication Corporation (NTC), Pakistan Reinsurance Company (PRC), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC), Islamabad Electric Supply company (IESCO), Printing Corporation of Pakistan (PCP) and Mari Gas Company (MGC) while BESOS Trusts in Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP), Overseas Employment Corporation (OEC), Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation (PMDC), Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and Pakistan Steel Fabricating Company (PSFC) would be registered during the current week.

To launch the scheme in the remaining SOEs, the relevant Ministries / Organizations have been asked to finalize the procedural / legal formalities for the implementation of the scheme in their respective SOEs. PC had also started kickoff meetings with the concerned Ministries/ Departments, the meeting was informed.