Govt to privatise 48 organisations within next five years

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to privatise 48 organisations within the next five years.

A session of National Assembly’s Standing Committee for Privatisation was held under Syed Mustafa Mahmood.

During the session, Secretary for Privatisation Rizwan Malik gave a briefing to the session.

The privatisation ministry said that 15 companies have been taken out of the list and eight have been added to it.

Those which will not be privatised include National Bank of Pakistan, Pakistan State Oil, Sui Southern Gas, Sui Northern Gas, Civil Aviation Authority, Pakistan International Airlines, Pakistan Steel Mills, Pakistan Railways and others.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government’s privatisation programme was presented in which the organisations were to be privatised within five years.

The secretary told the meeting that within 1.5 years around seven institutions will be sold, which include two LNG plants, and Haveli Bahadur Shah and Balluki power plants.

In February, a report published in Bloomberg said that top foreign banks, including JPMorgan Chase & Co, CLSA and Credit Suisse Group AG, were pitching for a role in Pakistan’s biggest privatisation in over a decade, which could raise around $2 billion.

The government’s sale of two LNG power plants could draw interest from Chinese and Middle Eastern investors, a person privy with the development told Bloomberg on the condition of anonymity. Pakistan received about 10 bids from groups seeking a financial advisory role and expects to pick banks by the end of March, the report added.