By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said on Saturday that the process of privatising Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will be finalized by the end of June or early July, with Islamabad airport potentially following suit shortly after, Dawn newspaper reported.
“The government has no business being in business,” Aurangzeb told a news briefing, explaining the government’s plan to divest from state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
“We expect the bids for PIA to come in the next two to three weeks, and by the end of June or early July, we can move it to the investors… the Islamabad airport would be the next, followed by the airports in Karachi and Lahore.”
The finance minister, who concluded his visit to Washington on Sunday, said the government has a clear direction on privatization and is committed to implementing energy reforms and expanding the tax net.
The finance minister and his team were in Washington last week to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
They also conducted a series of bilateral meetings with visiting finance ministers, heads of financial institutions, and senior US officials.
The finance minister’s visit to the US also comes when the IMF published its updated World Economic Outlook, projecting Pakistan’s growth at 2 percent. The Fund has kept the country’s expected growth rate at 3.5 percent for the next fiscal year.
Pakistan signed the $3 billion agreement with the IMF in June 2023, which helped the South Asian country avoid a default. The country is believed to have requested the IMF for another $8 billion bailout program.
The finance minister said Pakistan was requesting a “larger and longer” multi-billion-dollar loan program from the IMF and discussions were underway with the Fund’s officials, the state-run APP news agency reported.
“Once the mission is back in Islamabad, we are going to agree on the priorities and the principles,” the minister said at his news conference at the Pakistan Embassy.
“We have our own views and we’ll share it with IMF. But I would rather leave it to the joint meetings in terms of the size and the duration of the program.”
Copyright © 2021 Independent Pakistan | All rights reserved
