The Sindh government is increasingly depending on private companies to run public services. From building roads and collecting toll taxes to managing hospitals, schools, transport, and water supply, private companies are playing a growing role in the province. The government calls this Public-Private Partnership (PPP). But an important question is: if private companies are doing so much of the work, what is the government doing for the people?
The government is elected to serve the people and provide basic facilities. Citizens pay taxes and expect good roads, hospitals, schools, public transport, and clean drinking water. However, instead of strengthening its own departments, the Sindh government increasingly relies on private companies and organisations to deliver these services. This raises serious questions about its ability to manage public institutions.
The Sindh government's official PPP project list includes roads, bridges, hospitals, schools, transport, water supply, industrial zones, and tourism projects. Some examples are the Hyderabad-Mirpurkhas Dual Carriageway, Karachi-Thatta Dual Carriageway, Malir Expressway, Shahrah-e-Bhutto Expressway, and Ghotki-Kandhkot Bridge. These projects show the growing role of private companies in the province's development.
Healthcare is another important example. The management of District Headquarters Hospital Badin was handed over to Indus Hospital under a PPP arrangement in 2016. The government has also involved private organisations in managing rural health facilities, public schools, and other services. Its PPP portfolio includes hospital laboratory services, regional blood centres, and the management of public-sector schools.
The concern is not that every public-private partnership is wrong, but that the government is increasingly turning to the private sector instead of building the strength of its own institutions
The question is simple: why can the government not improve its own hospitals, schools, and departments? Why should public institutions repeatedly depend on outside organisations to perform their duties? A government hospital should have doctors, medicines, equipment, and proper management. These are basic responsibilities of the state.
The government's reliance on PPPs extends far beyond roads and hospitals. Its official project list includes the Yellow Line bus service, electric buses for feeder routes, the Karachi Hub Water Canal, the 65-million-gallon water supply project, desalination plants, and wastewater treatment projects.
Other projects include the rehabilitation of Rani Bagh in Hyderabad, Keenjhar Lake Resort, Tharparkar tourism, the Dhabeji Special Economic Zone, Marble City Karachi, vocational training institutes, and vehicle fitness inspection centres.
These projects cover services and activities that affect people's daily lives. Some involve private investment in infrastructure, while others include the management or operation of public services. The concern is not that every partnership is wrong, but that the government is increasingly turning to the private sector instead of building the strength of its own institutions.
Roads and transport also raise questions about toll charges and the cost of public services. When private companies are allowed to collect tolls or earn money through public projects under their agreements, citizens deserve to know how much these arrangements cost and who benefits from them.
This approach is linked to neoliberalism, an economic and political idea that gives the private sector a greater role in areas traditionally managed by the state. Under this approach, governments increasingly depend on private companies to build, finance, manage, or operate public projects.
In Sindh, the growing use of PPPs raises the question of whether the government is becoming more interested in involving private companies than in improving its own departments. Instead of building a strong public healthcare system, it contracts out hospital management. Instead of improving public institutions, it brings in outside organisations to run certain services.
A private company works according to its contract and business interests. A government, however, has a responsibility to every citizen, including those who cannot afford expensive services. Public services should not be judged only by their financial performance. Their real value lies in whether ordinary people can access them.
The growing dependence on private organisations raises a bigger question about governance in Sindh. When roads, hospitals, schools, transport, and water supply increasingly depend on private companies, it becomes necessary to ask whether the government is strengthening its own ability to serve the people or passing more of its responsibilities to others.
The government may argue that PPPs bring investment, expertise, and better management. However, private participation cannot become a permanent excuse for weak public institutions. Nor can the government escape responsibility when a private organisation fails to provide an agreed service.
The Sindh government cannot outsource its responsibility to the people. It may sign contracts with companies, but it remains answerable for public services and the use of public money.
Public-Private Partnership should not become a replacement for government itself. If the state increasingly depends on private organisations to perform its basic duties, citizens have every right to question the purpose of that state.
Ultimately, the performance of a government should not be measured by the number of agreements it signs with private companies or the size of its PPP portfolio. It should be measured by the quality of public services available to ordinary citizens.
If the Sindh government keeps handing over its responsibilities to private companies, the question remains: what is the purpose of a government if it cannot manage its own public institutions?