Loud Thinking

An advice to the government of Mian Nawaz Sharif for avoiding the pit falls of the privatisation.

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

AoA.

Sir,

Please note that privatisation should not be done in such a way, which will not GENUINELY increase the national wealth.

I mean that firstly, in payments of the government’s sold assets, money must not move from just one bank to the other bank, because It will NOT make any ADDITION to the national wealth.

Money must come from abroad, so that NATIONAL WEALTH genuinely increases in sale of the state owned enterprises (SOE’s).

For this to happen, all payments must be made to the GOP in foreign currency.

Secondly, the modus operandi of payment should not be based on the FACILITY to the buyers of the national assets, for making payment in instalments.

This system has the built in fault, of allowing the buyers of the SOE’s, to pay the instalments of the purchased assets from the pockets of the general public, by just increasing the prices of their products or services.

Such privatisations are a NET loss for the public and the nation.

Hence, these types of payment terms must not be allowed to be included in the privatisation deals.

We should also not forget the lessons of the highly dubious PTCL deal, in which the 10 years old outstanding payment of $800 million (which must be worth now $5 billion), by the ETISALAT Telecom, is still due to the government of Pakistan and the telecom company is enjoying the benefits of the default.

Best Regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.