SOEs | Pakistan

ISLAMABAD - In a controversial move, the government has announced privatise 24 major state-owned enterprises (SOEs) by 2029.

• Losses of Rs342bn in six months seen as ‘Rs1.9bn daily drain’ on public finances • Circular debt crosses Rs4.9tr; unfunded pensions, weak governance deepen fiscal strain ISLAMABAD: With relentless financial haemorrhaging of nearly Rs342bn in just six months, the cumulative losses and unfunded pension liabilities of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have crossed Rs7.5tr — almost three times the country’s defence allocation of Rs2.55tr for FY26, and over seven times the upcoming year’s Public Sector Develop­ment Programme (Rs1tr). The Ministry of Finance informed the Cabinet Commit­tee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCoSOEs) on Friday that total SOE losses now exceed Rs5.8tr — nearly one-third of the recently passed Rs17.5tr federal budget for 2025-26. Presided over by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurang­zeb, the meeting was briefed by the Central Monitoring Unit of the Finance Division on the biannual performance of federal SOEs for the period July to December 2024. The report outlined the worsening state of SOEs, in...