ISLAMABAD: On Friday, the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCOP) gave its approval for the privatization program of 24 state-owned firms. The ministry responsible for privatization was directed to discuss the phase-in of each entity after consulting with the relevant ministries.

According to a press release, the Ministry of Privatization provided the committee, which convened under the direction of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, with a phased Privatization Programme (2024–29) that was based on the PC Board's recommendations.
 Along with federal secretaries from several ministries and divisions, other committee members in attendance were the chairman of SECP, the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan, the ministers of industries and production, finance, and commerce, as well as the governor and state bank of Pakistan.
The CCOP suggested that the federal footprint be restricted to the Strategic and Essential SOEs under the purview of the federal government, with emphasis given to the privatization of loss-making businesses.
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The CCOP underlined that profits-making SOEs will also be taken into account for privatization. Following its discussion of the parameters for the privatization program, the CCOP thoroughly examined 84 SOEs in the context of the SOE Act and program.
The committee proposed after its discussions that 40 SOEs classified as Strategic or Essential be brought before the Cabinet Committee on State Owned Enterprises (CCoSOE) by their respective ministries in order to be classified as such;

It further said that the SOEs involved in the Privatization Programme will not be classified as Strategic or Essential.
The CCOP instructed the Ministry of Privatization to discuss the justifications offered by the relevant ministries for not consulting with the 18 SOEs, and to provide more concrete recommendations for each, which would be brought before the CCOP at its upcoming meeting.

In order to complete a comprehensive phased privatization program by the time of the CCOP's next meeting, all ministries and divisions were instructed to bring up their cases involving Strategic and Essential SOEs with CCOSOE as soon as possible.
The request to transfer 322,460,900 OGDCL shares from the Privatization Commission's CDC account to the Ministry of Energy's Petroleum Division was also taken into consideration by the CCOP.

The Law and Justice Division was instructed to comprehensively review the provisions of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Act 2023 in the current case and present its suggestions to the CCOP during its subsequent meeting. As a result, the subject was postponed.