ISLAMABAD: The bill to convert State Life Insurance Corporation into a limited company was Thursday referred to National Assembly Standing Committee on Commerce for deliberation.
The bill was earlier passed by National Assembly and sent to Senate for approval. But, the Senate sent it back to lower house with certain amendment. However, opposition members in National Assembly stressed to once again discuss the bill in Standing Committee as amended by the Senate.
Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan pleaded on different aspects to allay the apprehensions of the opposition regarding administrative control and job security for the SLIC employees.
Opposition members Shahzia Marri, Rasheed Godel and other had pleaded that there is need for discussing the bill afresh at the Committee as they had shown apprehensions regarding jobs as well as administration of the proposed limited company.
The minister explained that the bill was discussed by the Senate in detail and made appropriate amendments. Therefore, the objections of the members might be based on presumptions.
He clarified that administrative control of the proposed company shall remain with the government and all the employees shall be transferred to proposed company.
'The management control of the company shall continue to remain with the majority share holder that will be the federal government with not less than 75 percent shares. Moreover, the shares will be sold through stock market and everybody buying more than five percent of shares shall have to make a public disclosure,' Khurram Dastgir said.
The minister said only 25 percent shares shall be sold out while all employees who are serving in the Corporation shall be transferred to the proposed company.
The opposition members had raised concerns by pleading the case of PTCL that was privatized during Musharraf regime and claimed that the employees had suffered losses in financial terms.
Moreover, they had also raised the issue of value of the land owned by SLIC and said, if the government will go by the book value of the land owned by SLIC, it will be a great loss to corporation because the present value of the land owned by it is far more than the book value if assessed at the rate of 20 or 30 years back.
Considering the argument of the members, the Commerce Minister did not stress the bill and proposed to refer it to the Committee and Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi consented to the will of the House.
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