Bill Would Merge Privatisation Bodies Into One Commission, Shield Officials From Legal Action

A government bill introduced in the National Assembly would dissolve the Public-Private Partnership Authority (P3A) and merge its functions into an expanded Privatisation Commission, while giving the new body's current and former officials immunity from legal action and investigation for decisions taken in good faith, Dawn reported on October 26.

The bill would create the Privatisation and Public-Private Partnership Commission (PPPPC), repealing the Public Private Partnership Authority Act 2017 and amending the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000. The government's stated reason is that running two separate bodies for privatisation and public-private partnerships has caused "duplication of institutional functions and processes," according to Dawn.

Who would run the merged body

The incumbent Privatisation Commission chairman, Muhammad Ali, would lead the new commission. Its board would have a majority of independent, private-sector members, including at least two women directors, with fixed terms and defined grounds for removal. The commission would administer four funds carried over from the two existing bodies: a privatisation fund, a public contributory fund, a viability gap fund and a PPP project development fund, none of which would lapse at year-end.

The immunity clause

The bill extends legal and investigation immunity to the commission's current and former chairmen, secretaries, board members, officials and consultants for acts of "omission or commission in good faith and in personal capacity." Public money would be committed to defending any case brought against them over such acts. The bill text reviewed by Dawn does not say whether the protection extends to audits, and it does not name a minister or give a timeline for when the National Assembly might vote on the bill.

What the commission would do

Beyond the merger itself, the bill sets out a broader mandate: advising on, appraising, structuring, facilitating and monitoring public-private partnership projects; keeping a federal PPP project pipeline; running an approval process and a risk-management unit; setting up PPP contact points inside government agencies; and handling disputes, including an alternative process for smaller, below-threshold projects. Government agencies would have 15 days to supply the commission with a complete list of their existing, proposed and planned projects on request, with non-compliance referred to the relevant ministry.

Existing P3A contracts would transfer to the new commission, and P3A staff would keep their jobs on no-less-favourable terms for six months or until their contracts expire, whichever comes first.

Why the merger is happening now

The bill lands as the government presses ahead with a wider privatisation drive. Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb told Reuters in Bangkok on October 12 that Pakistan expects to raise more than $1 billion this fiscal year from privatising five or six state entities, with about a dozen more in the pipeline, including power distribution companies and airport operations. We covered that target in more detail separately. A single commission handling both outright sales and public-private partnership deals would, on paper, let the government run those transactions through one institutional channel rather than two.

The push also follows a Finance Ministry report, released under an IMF program condition, showing the net fiscal return from state-owned enterprises to the treasury fell 91 percent in July-December 2025 even as the firms' aggregate profits held up better. That gap between what state firms earn and what reaches the exchequer is part of the case the government has made for moving more of them off the public balance sheet, a priority the IMF has also tracked through Pakistan's loan reviews.

What to watch

Dawn's report does not say when the National Assembly will take up the bill for a vote, or whether opposition lawmakers have responded to the immunity clause. Neither the sponsoring ministry nor a spokesman has set out how the clause would interact with existing accountability law, including the National Accountability Ordinance, which already requires good faith for an official's protection in many cases.

Build Better Pakistan's Economy Desk is following the bill through the National Assembly and will update this piece when it comes up for debate or a vote.