Pakistan Crisis: The Shahbaz Sharif government of Pakistan has taken many steps to improve the deteriorating economic conditions of the country, but they have not shown any significant effect. Now Pak Govt has announced privatization of all government enterprises companies.
Pakistan Crisis: The situation in Pakistan, which is surrounded by financial crisis, is going from bad to worse since last year. After the elections, a new government was formed in the country and once again Shehbaz Sharif took command of the country as the Prime Minister, but in the second innings too, the challenges of bringing Pakistan out of poverty remained the same. Are made. However, now the steps being taken by PAK PM are in the news.
Actually, the government has prepared a plan to privatize all the government companies, except a few. This is not the first time, but even during his first government, Shahbaz Sharif has taken such steps regarding airport, port and historical hotel. Let us know to what extent the neighboring country Pakistan is trapped in the debt trap and what things has it handed over to private hands till now?
Surprising decisions to improve the situation
Call it the burden of debt or the pressure of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), all the efforts of the Government of Pakistan to provide relief to the people of the country who have been suffering from inflation for a long time are failing. In such a situation, to overcome poverty, Shahbaz Sharif government is continuously taking new and surprising decisions. Now the Prime Minister (PM Shehbaz Sharif) has announced the privatization of all state-owned enterprises except strategically important enterprises last Tuesday. According to the report of ARY News, in the meeting held in this regard, the roadmap of privatization program 2024-29 was presented, which also includes privatization of electricity distribution companies.
First privatization of the airline!
Pakistani PM Shahbaz Sharif says that privatization of state-owned businesses will save taxpayers’ money and will help the government in providing quality services to the people. According to the report, the government will start selling government companies with the privatization of Pakistan International Airlines Company Limited (PIA) and after that bids will be invited from other companies. The government’s plan is to first sell such companies, which are running in losses, to private hands. However, profit making government companies are also included in the list.
People’s troubles increased due to IMF’s strict conditions
Now the question is whether the effect of this government program ‘Privatization 2024-2029’ for selling companies in Pakistan will be seen? Actually, this is because Shahbaz government has already taken some similar steps in the last year 2023. The country, which is on the verge of poverty, has taken many such decisions to get the bailout package from the IMF, which has increased the burden of the people of the country. In these, IMF had imposed conditions like ending all types of subsidies, increasing the rates of petrol-diesel and electricity as well as increasing the tax collection by 10 percent. However, increasing the burden on the public, the Pakistan government kept accepting its conditions and started getting help, but there was no significant improvement in the situation.
Roosevelt Hotel…Islamabad Airport and Karachi Port
According to a Reuters report, the Shahbaz government’s decision to sell government companies is also a step taken under pressure from the IMF. Earlier last year, Pakistan had given its famous Roosevelt Hotel in New York on rent for three years to raise money amid the threat of default. This deal with Pakistan was worth about 220 million dollars. After this, such news also remained in the headlines that to avoid default, the government is forced to sell other assets to raise emergency funds. According to all the reports that came at that time, in this sequence, in 2023, it also decided to give Islamabad Airport on contract and not only this, it signed a concession agreement with UAE for its largest Karachi Port, which is for 50 years.
Pakistan’s debt equal to 42% of GDP
Due to poor economic condition, Pakistan has already taken a loan of billions of rupees from the whole world and is still taking it. According to a report in Business Today, Pakistan has a foreign debt of $124.5 billion, which is 42 percent of its GDP. After the help received from IMF, there has been some increase in its treasury, but it is proving to be insufficient to improve the conditions of the country. Let us tell you that after receiving financial assistance of more than Rs 9000 thousand crore from the International Monetary Fund on April 30, Pakistan’s foreign exchange reserves increased to Rs 1.20 lakh crore in the month of May. In such a situation, the government says that it has one option left to sell government companies.
