The Pakistani government has decided to sell its stakes in three insurance companies and rejected the recommendations of their boards to retain the insurers in the public sector.
Headed by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb, the Cabinet Committee on State-Owned Enterprises (CCoSOEs) dismissed the recommendations of the boards of the three public sector companies to declare them as strategic and essential, reported the newspaper The Express Tribune.
The cabinet committee after detailed discussions decided that National Insurance Company Limited (NICL), State Life Insurance Corporation (SLIC) and Pakistan Reinsurance Company Limited (PRCL) did not meet the criteria of strategic or essential SOEs and would not be categorised as essential for the public sector, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Finance.
Out of the five SOEs controlled by the Commerce Ministry, PRCL and SLIC are already on the active privatisation programme but their boards have recommended that they be declared strategic and essential. The NICL board has also recommended keeping the entity under government control by declaring it strategic.
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