Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif makes economy his priority Newly elected Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif speaks to members of the media on Monday at his home in Lahore Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan's new prime minister, will appoint private sector managers to run state companies in efforts to revive an economy starved of investment, say leaders of his party. Mr Sharif, who has been prime minister twice before, launched a similar policy in 1997 when he appointed commercial bankers to run three large public sector banks. All three became profitable and two, Habib Bank and United Bank, were privatised. The plan faces a backlash from trade unions. Mr Sharif's aides compared the process to the privatisations in the UK by Margaret Thatcher after she became prime minister in 1979. Sartaj Aziz, former finance and foreign minister and a leader of Mr Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, told the Financial Times: "The formula is simple. You appoint good people, you allow them to appoint their people and you empower them. The government helps wherever it can. Officials said Ishaq Dar, a confidant of Mr Sharif, would take up his former post of finance minister in the new government. Final results have yet to be declared but business leaders have welcomed a vote that will probably allow Mr Sharif, a wealthy Punjabi steel magnate, to have an absolute majority in parliament without the need for coalition partners. Pakistani investors said they were tired of grappling with power cuts of up to 20 hours a day, widespread corruption in public life and an inefficient public sector. Mr Sharif has identified rescuing the economy as his number one priority. A central bank official said public sector companies in power, rail transport and aviation run up huge losses each year amounting to more than 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product. "These are clearly white elephants," he said. Mian Muhammad Mansha, the Lahore-based owner of a Pakistani conglomerate who is reputed to be the country's richest man, approvingly quoted a reference to Lady Thatcher as a "modern Joan of Arc" and said Pakistan needed structural reforms similar to hers. "First you need to get all these public sector companies out of government control," he said. This will release so much money that they are losing, and it will make politics clean. The 1997 bank plan saw Mr Sharif's government dismiss some 20,000 employees who were all given large redundancy payments. The current reform plan may meet resistance not only from unions but from politicians who are used to arranging contracts for their businesses from public sector companies. Mr Sharif will have to keep his own politicians under control if he wants his plan to succeed. In the past, many have thrived on patronage," said Suhail Jehangir Malik, an economist. Public sector companies are a huge drain on our national economy. Reforming them must be a primary objective for the new government. The plan is likely to win support from international donors, including the International Monetary Fund, which is expecting to begin negotiations shortly on a new $9bn loan to stave off a balance of payments crisis. Pakistan's foreign reserves are equivalent to the value of two months of imports. "The problem with Pakistan is both macroeconomic weakness and long-term structural issues," said one person involved in preliminary talks with the interim government in power over the election period. Given the severity of the economic problems, we do need to have a government that is going to undertake quite serious economic reforms. Under a so-called extended fund facility of up to four years, Pakistan would be expected to cut its budget deficit by increasing tax revenues, directing subsidies more accurately towards the poor and introducing policies to encourage foreign direct investment.