KARACHI: The government has decided to transfer the state-run Pakistan National Shipping Corporation’s (PNSC) management to the military-run National Logistics Corporation (NLC), officials confirmed on Thursday, saying the move is expected to save $6 billion that Islamabad currently pays in foreign freight annually.
A week earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government sold 75 percent of its shareholding in the national flag carrier Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) to a business consortium led by Arif Habib Group for Rs135 billion ($482 million).
The government’s current drive to privatize state-owned enterprises (SOEs) is a key requirement of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) $7 billion loan program. The global lender wants Islamabad to privatize its loss-making state assets to save valuable revenue.
PNSC reported a 34 percent decline in its profit, which reduced to Rs3.71 billion ($13.2 million) in the July-September quarter this year. Its revenues from shipping business fell by 2 percent to Rs9.32 billion ($33 million) in the same period, according to the company’s filing to the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) seen by Arab News. The PNSC’s profits remained almost stagnant at Rs20 billion ($73 million) in FY25 while its shipping income shrank 18 percent to Rs33.7 billion ($120.3 million).
