On November 3, 2017, secretariat of National Assembly Standing Committee on Industries and Production (MoI&P) stated that matters pertaining to privatisation have been taken up for a discussion by the committee.
According to the Privatisation Minister, the directive of the committee needs to be determined in the light of Rules of Business, 1973, schedule 1, serial 32, wherein the following mandate has been assigned to the Privatisation Division also read with chapter XX part-1 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly, 2007 pertaining to the National Assembly Standing Committees : (i) privatisation policies;( ii) the transfer of managed establishments order, 1978;(iii) administration of Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 (LII of 2000);(iv) negotiation with international organisations relating to the functions of privatisation in consultation with the Economic Affairs Division and ;( iv) any incidental item.
The letter further states that the State Owned Entities (SoEs) approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) constitute these matters which are primary objective of the Privatisation Division and the Privatisation Commission under the Privatisation Ordinance.
Privatisation Minister stated that Privatisation Division, in the recent past was not a full fledged Ministry and therefore, did not have specific Standing Committees to deal with this subject, neither of the Senate nor of the National Assembly. The issue of privatisation was being dealt with by the Standing Committee on Finance, Revenue, Economic Affairs, Statistics & Privatisation and Industries and Production.
"Since privatisation has been recently upgraded to a full Ministry, all matters pertaining to privatisation are being looked after now by the newly constituted Standing Committee on Privatisation in the Senate as well as the National Assembly. As this is a recent development, the deliberation in other Standing Committee also continues. At present, Privatisation Commission is engrossed in giving replies to several committees at one and the same time," he added.
After explaining Rules of Business, 1973, Privatisation Minister has requested to the Speaker National Assembly that the matters pertaining to the subject of entities on the privatisation list approved by the federal government, may be referred to the appropriate committee as per Rules of Business, 1973 and section 198(2) of National Assembly Rules and Procedure and Conduct of Business 2007.
On Wednesday, Chairman Standing Committee asked Additional Secretary Incharge MoI&P Mian Asad Haya-ud-din about the role of Industries Ministry with respect to PSM; he replied that operational matters of PSM are dealt with by his Ministry but issues related to privatisation are the responsibility of the Privatisation Ministry.
He clarified that when an entity is added to the active list of privatisation, the role of Ministry of Industries and Production stands diminished.
He, however, clarified that all PSM related matters are jointly handled by Ministry of Industries and Production and Ministry of Privatisation.
"We write summaries of PSM employees and send to the Privatisation Ministry for onward sending to the ECC," said, Mian Asad Haya-ud-din. He said, PSM has two bosses ie Ministry of Industries and Production as per Rules of Business and Privatisation Ministry for sell-off issues.