N the approaching twilight of its term, the government is reportedly trying to resume the push towards privatisation. But a lurking danger now is that the government may have given contradictory assurances to various stakeholders in the process. Last month, opposition members in parliament were assured that there would be no privatisation of PIA, for instance, and that the airline`s management would remain with the government. In return, the opposition extended its support for the bill to transform the legal status of PIA. But only a month before the joint sitting of parliament that passed the conversion bill, the government had assured the IMF that `we remain committed to move ahead with seeking strategic private-sector participation in PIA`. In return for that assurance they obtained the release of the tranche.

Now comes the time to deliver on both promises, le to keep PIA management in government hands while seeking `strategic privatesector participation` in the airline. It is anybody`s guess what game plan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has for this feat. His speech before the joint sitting of parliament on April 11 was the moment he ought to have outlined the path forward that he has in mind. But there was nothing in his remarks to indicate how he intends to move ahead. The forthcoming budget presents him with another opportunity to tell us what the game plan is, and if he once again fails then the conclusion will be that he has none and is only appeasing every camp in order to buy more time and keep the dollars flowing from successive IMF tranches. The same is true with the commitments given regarding Pakistan Steel Mills, where the government had committed to wait until May 15 for a response from the Sindh government on whether or not it wishes to take control of the beleaguered enterprise. Failing an affirmative response, the government committed to the Fund that it would proceed with the approval of the transaction structure for privatisation. But now we hear that it has decided to wait till June 10 for an answer. Clearly, the original deadline meant little. Given that the government has only one full fiscal year left in its term, the timeline for privatisation appears more and more unrealistic. It is up to the finance minister to dispel the growing scepticism.