Government moves to merge Privatisation Commission with P3A

The federal government has moved to merge the Privatisation Commission and the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) into a single institution, according to two reports carrying the development.

Profit reported that the government had proposed the merger of the two bodies. A second report, a Dawn headline carried by the aggregator Ua.News, said a bill to merge the privatisation commission and the public-private partnership authority had been introduced. Neither report gave the text of the proposed law, the minister or federal division that moved it, or the date from which a merger would take effect.

It was also not clear from either report whether the Privatisation Commission would absorb the P3A, whether the authority would survive as a subordinate wing, or whether a new body would be created in place of both.

The Privatisation Commission is the federal body that handles the sale of state-owned enterprises, a programme the government has repeatedly described as central to its economic reform agenda. The P3A was set up to channel private investment into public infrastructure through public-private partnership contracts, a model used for road, energy and transport projects.

Combining the two would put the sale of state assets and the awarding of partnership contracts in the same organisation, but the reports did not state the government's stated reason for the change, the savings expected, or how staff and pending transactions would be handled.

Under Pakistan's parliamentary procedure, a bill must be passed by both houses of parliament and assented to by the president before it becomes law. The reports did not say in which house the bill was introduced, whether it had been referred to a standing committee, or when it is expected to be taken up.

Profit published its report under the headline "Govt proposes merger of Privatisation Commission, P3A". The Dawn headline circulated by Ua.News read "Pakistan introduces bill to merge privatisation commission and PPP authority". The difference in wording (a proposal in one account, an introduced bill in the other) could not be resolved from the material available, and the Skardu Times could not independently confirm the stage the legislation has reached.