The National Assembly Standing Committee on Privatization has directed the Ministry of Finance to immediately release Rs. 6 billion to settle long-overdue claims of Postal Life Insurance policyholders. The decision came during a tense meeting chaired by Dr. Farooq Sattar on Monday, where lawmakers voiced sharp concerns about prolonged delays that continue to affect thousands of policyholders awaiting their rightful payments.
Officials from the Finance Ministry briefed the committee that while the total liabilities to Postal Life Insurance customers stand at an alarming Rs. 42 billion, only Rs. 8 billion has been disbursed so far. In an attempt to address the backlog, they outlined plans to release Rs. 3 billion immediately, followed by another Rs. 3 billion by the end of the year. However, this timeline did little to appease committee members.
Farooq Sattar pushed back strongly against the phased approach, instructing that the additional Rs. 3 billion installment should not be delayed beyond the upcoming quarter. He stressed that the full Rs. 6 billion allocation must be honored without further excuses, emphasizing that delayed payments undermine public trust in critical financial services like Postal Life Insurance.
Members of the committee did not hold back their frustration. Senator Sehar Kamran raised alarms over the ethical implications of withholding funds that rightfully belong to citizens, warning that such practices risk eroding public confidence in state institutions. MNA Saba Sadiq added her voice, declaring, “This is the public’s money, not the government’s. Tell the IMF that,” in a pointed critique of perceived fiscal priorities shaped by international obligations.
Adding to the financial context, Sattar pointed out that the Ministry is currently holding Rs. 48 billion under funds sourced from abandoned properties, further intensifying questions around why critical payouts to ordinary citizens are being delayed when liquidity exists elsewhere in the system.
During the same session, the committee advanced the Privatization Commission Amendment Bill 2024, passing it by a margin of 8 votes to 4 despite vocal opposition from members like Sehar Kamran. It also instructed the Privatization Division to formally engage the Cabinet Committee on Privatization to expedite the sale process of abandoned properties, indicating a broader push to optimize underutilized state assets.
The committee did not limit its scrutiny to financial matters alone. Earlier in the meeting, members turned their attention to Pakistan’s persistent electricity woes. Dr. Farooq Sattar highlighted alarming reports of 12 to 14 hours of load shedding in many parts of the country. The Secretary of the Privatization Division attempted to clarify that official load management was capped at 6 hours in high-loss regions, but multiple committee members contested this claim, citing anecdotal evidence of outages stretching up to 20 hours in some areas.
In response to these grievances, the committee resolved to formally communicate its concerns to the Minister for Power Division. Sattar suggested holding joint sessions between the Power and Privatization committees to develop a more coordinated approach. He summed up the frustration poignantly: “The Power Minister is so good, yet there is darkness under the lamp — and now the whole country is in darkness.”
Taken together, the session painted a picture of a governance landscape grappling with overlapping economic pressures, public service delivery failures, and the mounting urgency to restore trust by ensuring that financial commitments to ordinary Pakistanis are met without further delay. As the Finance Ministry now faces fresh instructions to expedite payments, policy watchers will be looking closely to see if this directive finally translates into tangible relief for Postal Life Insurance customers across the country.