Pakistan’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are public liabilities – not public assets. Total SOE debt now stands at Rs9.5 trillion. Accumulated losses have climbed to Rs6.6 trillion. Last year alone, SOEs bled another Rs832.8 billion.
Cold fact: This is not inefficiency. This is institutionalized loss-making. And where there is institutionalized loss, there is institutionalized gain.
Colder fact: If SOEs are losing billions, someone is making billions. The bleeding is concentrated in five chronic drains: QESCO (Quetta Electric Supply) lost Rs112.7 billion, PESCO (Peshawar Electric Supply) Rs92.7 billion, Pakistan Railways Rs60.3 billion, and PIA Holding Company Rs48.9 billion. Pakistan Steel Mills has produced no steel for years — but it still produced a Rs26 billion loss.
Year after year, these entities consume public money, avoid hard reform and return to the budget for another lifeline. Parties change. Cabinets change. Finance ministers change. The SOE machine does not change. No government shuts them down. No government fixes them. Every government funds them.
Here is the arithmetic: Rs6.6 trillion has not vanished. It has moved. It has moved through inflated contracts. It has moved through political appointments. It has moved through overstaffing. It has moved through procurement leakages. It has moved through weak recoveries, subsidised inputs, and guaranteed payments.
The pattern is clear: The enterprise loses. The taxpayer pays. The network gains.
Imagine: Government support to SOEs rose to Rs2.078 trillion last year — up 37 percent from the previous year. This included Rs728.9 billion in equity injections, Rs726.3 billion in subsidies, Rs354.1 billion in loans, and Rs269.2 billion in grants.
Put simply: out of the federal government’s Rs12.97 trillion in tax revenue, around Rs2.078 trillion was recycled back into SOEs.
Red alert: For every Rs6 collected in taxes, roughly Rs1 was swallowed by state-owned enterprises. Lo and behold, Pakistan is taxing productive citizens to finance unproductive institutions. The salaried class pays. The worker pays. The exporter pays. Then the money is poured into enterprises that neither serve efficiently nor reform honestly.
No ambiguity in this: If SOEs are losing trillions, someone is making trillions. Public loss has become private income. Government failure has become a revenue stream. Rs6.6 trillion lost. Where did it go? A loss tells you how much the public sector lost. A forensic review tells you who received the money.Remember: The government is not just the rescuer of SOEs – the government is also the prime beneficiary. Why? Because SOEs allow the government to do three things: First, park political costs outside the budget. Second, distribute patronage through jobs, contracts, postings, and subsidies. Third, delay reform as SOEs absorb the consequences of weak governance, theft, overstaffing and poor recovery — while the government avoids hard decisions.
The reality: The SOE is the loss account. The government is the beneficiary. The citizen is the financier.
Rs6.6 trillion lost. Where did it go? It went to four places: Political appointees got protected payrolls. Politically selected suppliers got contracts. Defaulters got services without payment. Political managers got patronage without accountability.
Pakistan does not need another SOE report. Pakistan needs a beneficiary register: top 100 vendors, top 100 defaulters, and top 100 contractors.
Bottom line: The SOE is the loss account. The government is the beneficiary. The citizen is the financier. Until Pakistan names the beneficiaries of loss, Rs6.6 trillion will not be the end of the story. It will be the opening balance of the next bailout.
—The writer is a journalist and political analyst.
