Cabinet body approves 24 SOEs for privatisation

ISLAMABAD: The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) on Friday approved 24 state-owned enterprises for the Privatisation Programme (2024-29), APP reported.

A meeting of the committee decided that the inclusion of other (SOEs) in the privatisation programme will be taken upon completion of the review by the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCoSoEs) regarding categorization of essential SOEs.

After deliberating on the privatisation policy guidelines, the CCOP considered 84 SOEs reflected in the federal footprint SOEs consolidated report FY2020-22 in detail in light of the SOE Act and Policy.

The meeting of the committee was held in Islamabad with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar in the chair.

Other members included Finance Minister, Minister for Privatisation, Minister for Commerce, Minister for Power, Minister for Industries & Production, Minister of State Finance and Revenue besides Federal Secretaries of various Ministries and Division.

The CCOP was presented with a phased Privatisation Programme (2024-29) by the Ministry of Privatization, based on the recommendations of the PC Board, in terms of Section 5(b) of the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000.

The CCOP recommended that priority should be accorded to reducing the federal footprint in commercial space and limiting it to the strategic and essential SOEs only. CCOP emphasized that even SOEs making profits would also be considered for privatization.

The entities not categorised as strategic or essential will be placed before CCOP for the decision regarding their inclusion in the programme.