Staff Reporter
Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, in a meeting with a seven-member delegation
of Privatization Commission of Pakistan, led by Federal Minister for Privatization Mohammadmian
Soomro, said that his government was supporting two RLNG power projects and banks privatization, if
the rights of employees and consumers were protected properly. Federal Minister Mohammadmian
Soomro led delegation comprising Member Privatization Commission (PC) Khurrram Shahzad, Financial
Advisor PC Rabial Akhundzad, Samreen Zehra, Consultants Asad Rasool, Zayed Maud and others called
on Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah here on Friday at CM House. The chief minister was assisted by
Chief Secretary Mumtaz Shah, PSCM Sajid Jamal Abro, SMBR Qazi Shahid Parvez, Secretary Finance
Hassan Naqvi, Secretary Energy Musadiq Khan, Secretary Investment. The Minister/ Chairman
Privatization Commission, Mohammadmian Soomro said that the federal cabinet had finalized some of
the projects, banks and real estate assets for privatization. He added that since those projects were
national assets, therefore he wanted the take provincial governments into confidence for their
privatization.Soomro said that the projects for which bids have been invited include two RLNG based
power plants at Havelli Bahadur Shah and Balloki respectively. He added each of the plant has the
capacity of generating 1230 MW electricity. The other projects were SME Bank Ltd and First Women
bank, he said.The chief minister said that the power tariff of both the powers plants must be protected
so that the private party, after privatization, could not charge high rate for power generation. He added
that similarly, the commission has to protect the employment and rights of the employees working
there.Murad Shah said that as far as SME Bank and First Women bank privatization was concerned, he
repeated his request for protecting the rights and employment of the people working in the bank. He
also insisted on processing the entire privatization process transparently and his government would be
supporting the commission.The chairman Privatization commission also said that the cabinet has
approved privatization of the real estate assets such as Services Intel Hotel Lahore, Jinnah Convention
Centre Islamabad, Divestment of Minority sharing in leading oil and gas, OGDC and PPL and others. The
chief minister welcoming the delegation said that his government has no objection in their privatization
but just he wanted transparency and protection of their employees.
