Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Pakistan is expected to get an investment of $5 billion over the next three years from local and international firms for the exploration and development of petroleum and gas reserves that will save the cash-strapped country’s valuable foreign exchange and provide relief to the common man bearing the brunt of high fuel prices.

The announcement was made in a meeting presided over by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday during a meeting with a delegation of oil and gas exploration and production sector companies.

According to the state-run Associated Pressof Pakistan, the meeting was informed that during three years, around 240 places would be excavated with an investment of $5 billion to explore petroleum and gas in Pakistan.

The meeting was informed that currently, Pakistan’s domestic production stood at 70,998 barrels and 3,131 MMSCFD (million standard cubic feet) gas per day.

The Prime Minister invited petroleum and gas exploration and production companies to also find offshore reserves.

“Exploring the oil and gas reserves at the local level in Pakistan is our top priority,” Prime Minister Sharif said, adding that Pakistan spent billions of dollars every year on importing oil and gas.

“Production from local reserves will save Pakistan’s valuable foreign exchange and fuel and gas will become affordable for the common man,” he added and directed the concerned authorities to provide solutions to all the problems of the sector on a priority basis.

Currently, the price of petrol in Pakistan is Rs. 265.61/Ltr, high-speed diesel is Rs. 277.45/Ltr and light-speed diesel is Rs 166.86/Ltr.

The Prime Minister constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar that would include experts, secretaries and the relevant authorities.

The committee, after consultation with the representatives of the sector, would formulate proposals to create an attractive policy for the exploration and development of petroleum and gas reserves in Pakistan.

Mr. Sharif directed the relevant authorities to solve all the problems of the sector and submit policy proposals to the constituted committee on priority.

The delegation thanked the Prime Minister for making the petroleum and gas exploration and production sector a part of the consultation process, listening to their problems and finding serious solutions to them.

Security personnel cordon off a street during a protest by demonstrators of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee on the outskirts of Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AFP

India on May 17 said the protests witnessed in several parts of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) are a “natural consequence” of Islamabad’s continued policy of systemic plundering of resources from the region that remains under its “forcible and illegal” occupation.

India also asserted that the entire Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “have been, are and shall always remain integral parts of India”.

Also read: The recent unrest in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir | Explained

Violent protests erupted in PoK over rising costs of food, fuel and essential utilities as Pakistan reels under a severe economic crisis.

“We have seen reports on protests in several areas of Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at his weekly media briefing.

He was responding to a question on the protests in PoK.

“We believe that it is a natural consequence of Pakistan’s continued policy of systemic plundering of resources from these territories which remain under its forcible and illegal occupation,” Mr. Jaiswal said.

“Such exploitative policies deny the local people, rights over their own resources and the benefits thereof,” he said.

“We reiterate that the entire Union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh have been, are and shall always remain integral parts of India,” he added.

Two days ago, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar asserted that Pakistan-occupied Kashmir was, is and will always be part of India.

“I have no doubt in my own mind that someone living in PoK is comparing their situation with someone actually living in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that how is it that people today are actually progressing there,” he said.

Earlier this month, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said India will never give up its claim of PoK but it won’t have to capture it with force because its people, on their own, would want to be part of India after seeing the development in Kashmir.

“I think India will not have to do anything. The way the ground situation has changed in Jammu and Kashmir, the way the region is witnessing economic progress and the way peace has returned there, I think demands will emerge from people of PoK that they should merge with India,” he said.

“We will not have to use force to take PoK as people would say that we must be merged with India. Such demands are now coming,” he said.

The defence minister asserted that “PoK was, is, and will remain ours”.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Cash-strapped Pakistan will privatise all state-owned enterprises, including the loss-making Pakistan International Airlines, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced on May 14, broadening the government’s initial plans to make only loss-making state firms private.

The announcement to privatise state-run enterprises barring strategic ones comes a day after Pakistan started negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a new long-term Extended Fund Facility (EFF).

Mr. Sharif announced this while chairing a review meeting on the privatisation process of loss-making state-owned enterprises (SOEs), according to media reports.

During the meeting, he said that apart from strategic state-owned firms, all other enterprises — profitable or loss-making — will be privatised, Geo News reported.

Asserting that the government’s job is not to do business but to ensure a business and investment-friendly environment, Mr. Sharif directed all ministries to take action and cooperate with the Privatisation Commission.

Underscoring the need for the privatisation process to be transparent, he ordered the privatisation process of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to be televised, including the bidding and other important steps. The PIA’s privatisation is in its final stage, the report said.

Pakistan’s ailing national flag carrier stood as the country’s third-highest public sector loss-making entity, requiring Pakistani Rs. 11.5 billion per month solely for servicing its debts.

The process of privatisation of other institutions will also be broadcast live, the report said.

A roadmap of the Privatisation Programme 2024-2029 was also presented during the meeting, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Ministers were informed that loss-making SOEs were to be privatised on a priority basis and that a pre-qualified panel of experts was being appointed in the Privatisation Commission to speed up the sell-off process, the report said.

Prime Minister Sharif-led government has pushed for the privatisation of several state-owned enterprises to tackle the burden on the exchequer and the prevailing financial crunch.

Previously, debt-struck Pakistan had plans to privatise only loss-making state-owned enterprises, the Dawn newspaper reported.

On May 12, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said that privatisation is necessary to achieve economic stability in the country.

“You have to move towards privatisation if you want economic stability in the country,” Mr. Aurangzeb said while speaking at the Pre-Budget Conference 2024-25 here.

Last week, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said the government would limit its business only to strategic and essential SOEs under its domain and their number would be reduced from 40 after scrutiny.

Privatisation has long been on the Washington-based IMF’s list of recommendations for Pakistan, which is struggling with a high fiscal shortfall, the report said.

Pakistan narrowly averted default last summer, and the economy has stabilised after the completion of the last IMF programme, with inflation coming down to around 17% in April from a record high of 38% last May.

The country is still dealing with a high fiscal shortfall, and while the external account deficit has been controlled through import control mechanisms, it has come at the expense of stagnating growth, which is expected to be around 2% this year compared to negative growth last year.