ISLAMABAD: Mohammad Zubair was on a cruise dinner with Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Thailand when he was offered the hardest job of his life: privatising a huge chunk of the economy while fighting resistance from the opposition and trade unions.
When the prime minister left the table, a colleague of former IBM executive Zubair rushed to his side.
“Are you mad? Three privatisation ministers have gone to jail and most have corruption cases hanging over their heads,” he said. “Don’t take this job.”
But Pakistan’s new privatisation tsar is determined to find buyers for 68 public companies, most of them loss-making, including two gas companies, an oil company, about 10 banks, the national airline and power distribution companies - all within the next two years.
The government sees the sell-offs as a life saver for Pakistan’s $225bn economy crippled by power shortages, corruption and militant violence. Successful privatisation is Sharif’s top political and economic goal.
“We lose 500bn rupees ($5bn) annually because of failing enterprises,” Zubair said.
“Every day a file lands on a bureaucrat’s desk and he has to take a decision he isn’t qualified to. This can’t go on, no matter what.”
“Pakistan can raise up to $5bn in privatisation revenue in the next two years to ease pressure on strained public finance,” Zubair said. REUTERS
