HYDERABAD, March 27: Federal Privatization and Investment Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has said the privatization policy has paid huge dividends not only to the government but also to the common man.

Speaking at the annual dinner of the Hyderabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Saturday night, he added that it was not the government’s job to run organizations like the KESC keeping in mind the fact that the private sector had better skills to run them.

“The government cannot do everything and we will have to get rid of this mentality and see as to why certain areas like Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad are showing progress. People should think whether we are missing anything in comparison to Singapore and Malaysia”, he maintained.

Dispelling an impression that the privatisation policy had benefited only the rich, he said the policy had been launched to be of benefit to the common man. He said Sindh used to have Rs2 billion development budget but it had witnessed a four times rise with the passage of time.

He said when Rs25 billion was allocated for development for the four provinces the government was spending Rs87 billion on the KESC alone, showing enormous losses because of incompetence of such organizations.

“It is not the government’s job to run these institutions the way they are being managed. That’s why the government pursued the privatization policy so that people concerned can operate the organizations and lessen the burden on the government”, he observed.

Dr Shaikh said privatization had been going on for 15 years which had earned the government Rs60 billion in the first ten years, followed by Rs36 billion in the first three years of the Gen Pervez Musharraf government. He further said in the last two years Rs75 billion was invested in privatization in a transparent way.

HCCI president Mehmood Ahmad welcomed guests.