The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) has asked the Commerce Ministry to fast track the evaluation of the insurance and reinsurance sector.

The review is with particular reference to State Life Insurance Corporation of Pakistan (SLIC), National Insurance Company Ltd (NICL) and Pakistan Reinsurance Company, and the Ministry is asked to submit its report to the committee by 31 March, reported the newspaper Dawn.

The CCoP meeting, chaired by Finance Minister Asad Umar on 13 February, said that the evaluation should be in line with the need for regulatory framework improvements, which should precede the process of privatisation of state-owned (re)insurers.

The government has postponed the privatisation of the state-owned (re)insurers.

The federal secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Mr Younus Dagha, told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament, that fake insurance agents were registered with SLIC as a result of which the life insurer was paying commissions of up to PKR4.8bn ($34.5m) to them, according to local media reports. He said that the fake agents had been removed and SLIC's organisation revamped to resolve the issue. Mr Younus expects significant improvement in SLIC's performance within a year.