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Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has devised a comprehensive plan to steer national institutions such as PIA, Pakistan Railways and Steel Mills out of crisis. "The PML-N leadership and its committees are working day and night to chalk out strategies to help the country in the current testing times," former Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif said.
Talking to different delegations on Saturday, Shahbaz said the PML-N government would heal the wounds of people which were inflicted by dictator Pervez Musharraf and President Zardari during last 13 years. According to Shahbaz, state-owned institutions such as PIA, Railways, Pakistan Steel Mills, Wapda and others are a major drag on Pakistan's economy. These loss-making entities are presently bleeding to the tune of Rs 400 billion per annum. Therefore, reforming these state owned institutions through a combination of privatisation and restructuring is fundamental.
The PML-N government in its two tenures in the 90s had demonstrated its ability to transform the loss-making institutions. Only in the banking sector, institutions such as HBL, UBL and National Bank were completely turned around in less than 2 years between 1997 and 1999. Earlier in its first term, major banks such as MCB and ABL were privatised. Today, they are premier banks in Pakistan and contributing billions towards the national exchequer. The PML-N manifesto envisages the following actions to turn the loss making state enterprises around:
---- Appoint independent and professional boards who in turn will appoint competent CEOs of state enterprises. Professional competence and merit will be the only criteria for appointment of boards and CEOs;
---- The immediate task of the boards and CEOs will be to manage these corporations effectively and to plug the losses;
---- Assign quantifiable targets and monitor on regular basis;
---- Performance evaluation will be carried out on a regular basis to ensure accountability;
---- Stop every kind of political interference in the affairs of these enterprises;
---- Undertake deep-seated and urgent reforms in the relevant sub sectors;
---- Identify enterprises which need to be privatised and assign targets to the Privatisation Commission to ensure completion of the privatisation process within the assigned timeframe;
---- Operational standards will be prescribed and complete autonomy will be given to achieve them.
---- PIA shall be transformed into a profitable and reputed airline of the region.
There will be special focus on Pakistan Railways to improve its operations. It has strategic importance as well as favoured mode of transportation for the common man and cargo carriages. A fully autonomous board will be set up to oversee the working of Railways. Talking to delegation members, Shahbaz Sharif said that people had rejected the slogans of so-called change and instead voted for a real change on May 11. "The nation needed a leader like Nawaz Sharif and people have now given their mandate in his favour," he said.
Had the previous federal government not embezzled public money and instead given these funds to provinces, there would have been Daanish Schools in every district and metro buses plying in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan, he said. Shahbaz expressed his concerns over reported cases of dengue virus in Karachi and said the caretaker Punjab government should send those health experts to the city who had successfully fought the disease in Punjab. Separately, talking to PML-N leaders from Southern Punjab, Shahbaz said that PML-N govern
Strategy to revive PIA, PSM, PR devised: Shahbaz | Business Recorder
Talking to different delegations on Saturday, Shahbaz said the PML-N government would heal the wounds of people which were inflicted by dictator Pervez Musharraf and President Zardari during last 13 years. According to Shahbaz, state-owned institutions such as PIA, Railways, Pakistan Steel Mills, Wapda and others are a major drag on Pakistan's economy. These loss-making entities are presently bleeding to the tune of Rs 400 billion per annum. Therefore, reforming these state owned institutions through a combination of privatisation and restructuring is fundamental.
The PML-N government in its two tenures in the 90s had demonstrated its ability to transform the loss-making institutions. Only in the banking sector, institutions such as HBL, UBL and National Bank were completely turned around in less than 2 years between 1997 and 1999. Earlier in its first term, major banks such as MCB and ABL were privatised. Today, they are premier banks in Pakistan and contributing billions towards the national exchequer. The PML-N manifesto envisages the following actions to turn the loss making state enterprises around:
---- Appoint independent and professional boards who in turn will appoint competent CEOs of state enterprises. Professional competence and merit will be the only criteria for appointment of boards and CEOs;
---- The immediate task of the boards and CEOs will be to manage these corporations effectively and to plug the losses;
---- Assign quantifiable targets and monitor on regular basis;
---- Performance evaluation will be carried out on a regular basis to ensure accountability;
---- Stop every kind of political interference in the affairs of these enterprises;
---- Undertake deep-seated and urgent reforms in the relevant sub sectors;
---- Identify enterprises which need to be privatised and assign targets to the Privatisation Commission to ensure completion of the privatisation process within the assigned timeframe;
---- Operational standards will be prescribed and complete autonomy will be given to achieve them.
---- PIA shall be transformed into a profitable and reputed airline of the region.
There will be special focus on Pakistan Railways to improve its operations. It has strategic importance as well as favoured mode of transportation for the common man and cargo carriages. A fully autonomous board will be set up to oversee the working of Railways. Talking to delegation members, Shahbaz Sharif said that people had rejected the slogans of so-called change and instead voted for a real change on May 11. "The nation needed a leader like Nawaz Sharif and people have now given their mandate in his favour," he said.
Had the previous federal government not embezzled public money and instead given these funds to provinces, there would have been Daanish Schools in every district and metro buses plying in Rawalpindi, Faisalabad and Multan, he said. Shahbaz expressed his concerns over reported cases of dengue virus in Karachi and said the caretaker Punjab government should send those health experts to the city who had successfully fought the disease in Punjab. Separately, talking to PML-N leaders from Southern Punjab, Shahbaz said that PML-N govern
Strategy to revive PIA, PSM, PR devised: Shahbaz | Business Recorder