Recovery of $8 million balance amount from Etisalat: government should not waste time on non-issues

It is in the interest of the government to move forward and recover the balanced amount of 8 million dollar from Etisalat instead of wasting time on non-issues, which are not part of the contractual obligation. This was stated by federal minister for privatisation Waqar Ahmad Khan while briefing National Assembly's standing committee on privatisation here on Wednesday.
Waqar apprised the committee about the whole process of PTCL privatisation. He admitted some deviations were made moving away from the contract which could have been avoided in any case but it is not of any use to scratch the nails. "The government may go ahead to fulfil the contractual obligations instead of looking behind and try to recover the balanced amount of 8 million dollar from Etisalat," he added.
Waqar said that the government owns 62 percent shares in PTCL and has received dividend income of Rs 26,954,077,941 since 2006 over its shareholding while Etisalat received Rs 11,271,000,000 dividend income against 26 percent shares.
"We are the custodians of the assets of the people of Pakistan and our mandate was to work for people's welfare and avoid any sort of under hand deal with the buyers in future privatisation of public sector enterprises, keeping in view the merits of transparency," he said.
He further informed the committee that the then privatisation minister highlighted all the irregularities committed during the privatisation process of PTCL and sent them to the full cabinet, which gave approval and validated the deal.
"It was not our contractual obligation to transfer or mutate the property in the name of PTCL, however, government intended to facilitate them and approach the provinces, which have agreed to do it on 50 percent rate," he added. He went on saying that the present government is determined for not compromising on transparency of the process and the sovereignty of the country.
It wants to resolve and rectify the matter by observing best efforts to close the transaction in an amicable manner and to get out 799 million dollar back, which were now over due. "We are in the process of enhancing the value of our assets through restructuring of our entities and to avoid any such lapses in future, the performance basis clauses would be inducted in future transactions,' he added.
The committee appreciated the ministry for giving comprehensive briefing, however, expressed dissatisfaction over the privatisation process of PTCL as the concerned ministries failed to ensure transparency in the contract. The committee recommended that the ministry may fix responsibility and take action against Pakistani officials so that such lapses could be avoided, in future. The committee deferred the issue till its next meeting.
This is pertinent to mention that advisor to prime minister on information technology Sardar Latif Khosa, while briefing NA standing committee on information and technology on Tuesday said that there is no ambiguity in privatisation of PTCL and it was totally transparent and fair. "The PTCL privatisation was done in a very transparent and fair manner and no one offered such an amount, offered by Etislat for acquisition of 26 percent shares of PTCL in 2005," he added.
These shares were sold to Etislat, he said, adding that nine companies were interested in buying these shares, of which three including Etislat UAE, China mobile and Singa Tale, Singapore were short listed. Etislat made the highest offer of 2.59 billion dollar, China mobile 1.40 billion dollar and Singa Tale 1.16 billion dollar for 26 percent shares, while the government retained the majority shares in PTCL, he added.