State-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a significant role in offering the social amenities and services to the public and considered as a way to improve the social welfare. However, the unsatisfactory performance of SOEs has always been the trouble for the government and immense burden on economy without effectual service delivery. Therefore, this study has been conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively to find the major causes of poor performance of SOEs. The qualitative approach provides a view of challenges facing by SOEs, on the other side, quantitative analysis identified the most deterministic factors that influence the performance of SOEs. The data for qualitative analysis was obtained through interviews while for quantitative analysis it was extracted from the annual reports on SOEs. Findings of the qualitative analysis revealed that management failure is the leading factor behind the failure of these public enterprises. Along with these factors, state involvement, myopic management, poor financial recordings, ambiguous state role, and government support are among the factors contributing to the inefficiencies and unsatisfactory performance of public enterprises. The findings of quantitative analysis revealed that employee factors have the most deterministic power for the success or failure of a public enterprise followed by the operational factors and leverage ratio. To bring back the public enterprises on track, there is a dire need to use the employees effectively and efficiently along with control on per employee costs. In addition, qualitative analysis suggested that until the government brings the professional team on ground and without clarifying the role of state, it will remain the wish that state-owned enterprises can be on track. To sum up, it is suggested that government should act as an owner not as a manager. Supervisors:- Dr. Saud Ahmed Khan Co-Supervisors:-Dr. Hafsa Hina