On January 16, 2026, a workshop on “Public Private Partnership” was conducted at National Institute of Public Administration (NIPA), Lahore for the participants of 45^th Mid-Career Management Course (MCMC). The workshop was conducted by Dr. Wasif Ali Memon, a former officer of Pakistan Customs Service, who is presently serving as Chairman, Sindh Revenue Board. The workshop was divided into three sessions. In the first session, the guest speaker delivered his presentation. This was followed by the question & answer session, whereas the third session was devoted to practical exercise by the participants.

Dr. Memon started his presentation by explaining the concept of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) and its key characteristics such as the long-term nature of contracts, risk-allocation, performance-related criteria, and private financing. He then discussed the history of PPP in Pakistan, noting that Sindh was torch bearer which enacted the country’s first PPP Act in 2010. He then discussed methods of PPP such as Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT), Design-Build-Finance-Operate (DBFO), Joint Ventures (JVs), etc. He also explained the modalities of PPP, focusing on financial and regulatory & institutional modalities. Dr. Memon then mentioned various benefits of PPP such as its ability to mobilize private investment, improve efficiency, risk sharing, better service quality, faster project delivery, cost effectiveness, and access to technology and innovation. PPP, however, can have many pitfalls such as complexity, lack of transparency, long term commitments, frequent contract renegotiations, and private parties’ ability to profit at public’s expense.

Following the presentation by the worthy guest speaker, there was a question & answer session during which many perceptive questions were asked and ably responded to by the speaker. In the third session, the class was divided into two groups and were given an exercise to draft a PPP contract according to the parameters given by the guest speaker. The document prepared by each group was presented by one group representative.