According to an agreement reached between the two parties during Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s visit to Qatar, State Minister for Finance Aisha Ghaus Pasha announced on Thursday that public-owned companies of Qatar plan to run Islamabad and Karachi airports.
According to Aisha Ghaus Pasha, even lucrative publicly traded firms are experiencing losses because the government cannot manage public-owned businesses. She said that Qatar has shown interest in investing in the nation and that privatising them will help keep them operating profitably.
Due to the industry’s cyclical debt, she lamented that the electricity sector received more funding than defence during the most recent budget year.
According to a Reuters report citing the office of Qatar’s ruler, the Qatar Investment Authority plans to invest $3 billion in Pakistan to help the country’s struggling economy.
With foreign reserves as low as $7.8 billion, barely enough for more than a month’s worth of imports, Pakistan is experiencing an economic crisis and a balance of payments crisis. Additionally, it has to deal with an expanding current account deficit, a declining rupee, and inflation that went above 24% in July.
The Emiri Diwan stated, without going into further detail, “The Qatar Investment Authority announced its aspiration to invest $3 billion in various commercial and investment sectors in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.”
The announcement was made during a visit to Doha by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who held official talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on Wednesday after a meeting with the QIA on Tuesday.
Doha has shown interest in airport management partnership and the Roosevelt Hotel in New York’s Manhattan owned by Pakistan International Airlines, two Pakistani aviation officials involved in the talks told Reuters.
Pakistan has proposed a 25% interest in the hotel, according to the officials. It closed in late 2020 amid the decline in tourism brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, and it has stayed closed as a result, in part because of funding issues and management conflicts.
One of the officials stated that Qatar has expressed interest in taking over the terminal and cargo services at the airport in Islamabad, adding that other airports, including Karachi, may be taken into consideration in the future.
