The members of the committee warned that privatization of the PIA in haste will not serve the purpose and Saleem Mandviwalla cited the example of Heavy Electrical Complex in this regard. "My party will resist the privatization of national flag carrier during the last four months of the present government," Mandviwalla said urging the committee to pass recommendations.
The committee proposed to the Privatization Commission to go ahead with plan to carve out PIA in core and non-core business and evaluation of assets but not to proceed with privatization plan. When the process of carving out and evaluation will be completed, the committee will meet again to take a decision about PIA privatization. Mandviwalla said that privatization of PIA should be put on hold as investor will not have confidence in the decision taken by the government in its last four months of its tenure and the decision will become a baggage for the next government which will have to implement it.
Minister for Privatization Danyal Aziz said he was following the law approved by the Parliament in 2016 for privatization of PIA. According to the law, the PC was required to complete the carving out process of transportation business and aviation by April 2018, within two year after the law was enacted, followed by the evaluation of the assets before going for privatization of the national flag carrier.
The committee chairman and members also drew his attention towards contradictory statements by Advisor to Prime Minister of Aviation and Minister Privatization on the matter of PIA privatization. The committee pointed out that the Advisor to Prime Minister on Aviation has made a statement that there was no plan for privatization under consideration, while the Minister for Privatization wanted to privatize the entity before election.
The committee was given a detailed briefing on privatization of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) and the fate of its thousands of employees. The committee was told that the PSM has 11,500 employees and a total of Rs 188 billion liabilities.
The committee was told that the transaction model approved by the Board of Privatization Commission will be a 30-year lease plan of the plant and the core land of Pakistan Steel Mill. The committee suggested to the Minister for Privatization that the federal government should take Sindh government on board regarding the lease agreements so that no issues regarding the PSM land arise later.
The committee was assured by the Minister that committee's concerns as to why UBL and HBL were given 6-7% discounts during sales of shares will be responded in detail in the next meeting. The meeting was held under the chairmanship of Senator Mohsin Aziz here at the Parliament House and was attended among others by Senators Nasreen Jalil, Saleem Mandviwalla, Malik Najmul Hassan and Saeedul Hassan Mandokhel, Minister for Privatization Daniyal Aziz, secretary privatization and other representatives from the ministry.