The government has finalised timeline for privatisation of Heavy Electrical Mechanical (HEC) assets in August and the process can be accelerated with the appointments of board of directors of other entities, informed sources revealed to this correspondent.
Sources further revealed that a meeting of the sub committee on privatisation of HEC met on Monday and finalised the timeline for evaluation on 16 July, invitation of bids on 25 July 2014 and offer of the HEC assets for privatisation mid-August. An official said that sub-committee was informed that various investors had shown an interest in the HEC. Managing Director HEC, Secretary Industries, official of Finance Ministry as well as PC directors attended the meeting to finalise the timeline for the HEC privatisation.
A member of the PC board said that the appointment of the board of directors of these entities, the sole domain of the government, had been at a snails pace and was the reason for the delay. The appointment of board of directors was essential to fulfil the legal formalities of signing of documents and evaluation.
The member PC board said that the cases for the appointment of board directors had been moved to the Prime Minister's office for the approval by the ministry concerned and the government had advertised in international and local newspapers seeking applications for the selection of chief executive officers (CEOs) of state owned entities (SoEs) on privatisation agenda.
The government on the directives of Supreme Court set up a commission headed by Abdul Rauf Chaudhry, former Secretary Establishment and Shams Qasim Lakha, head of the Aga Khan Foundation and well-known educationist Dr Ijaz Nabi, a professor of administrative sciences at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, as its members for the appointment of CEOs in SOEs. Subsequently, on January 13, 2014, a notification was issued by the government to exclude 23 SOEs from the purview of the commission for direct appointments. The move for direct appointment was challenged by Barrister Dawood Ghaznavi in Islamabad High Court (IHC). Ghaznavi told Business Recorder that the notification was cancelled by the IHC and restricted the Establishment Division's ability to select heads of SoEs.
Comments
Comments are closed.