Performance Evaluation of MCB and HBL after Privatization: A Comparative Analysis

Abstract

From the time of independence in 1947 through the 1960s, the role of public enterprises in Pakistan economy was limited to the sectors of transport, communications, energy and armaments. In the period 1971-77, nationalization was introduced on the large scale and public sector grew dramatically as basic industrial units, banks, life insurance companies, vegetable oil units and rice mills were taken over by the government of Pakistan (GOP). The removal of Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto in 1977 put the brakes on the process of rampant nationalization, and in the following year rice, cotton and flourmills were denationalized. As the global paradigm shifted towards market-led economies, and nationalized units and other public enterprises in the country continued to perform poorly, Privatization became a firm plank of public policy in Pakistan. The GOP made its institutional response by setting up in 1991 a Privatization Commission (PC), which would identify and sell public enterprises through transparent and economically beneficial methods. Muslim Commercial Bank was amongst the first banks privatized and since then almost all the nationalized banks have been privatized. Hence the study undertaken by the researcher is significant in knowing that how are these banks performing after their privatization. The Banks undertaken for this study are MCB and HBL.