Hafeez for early resolution of govt-Etisalat dispute

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has asked the stakeholders to finalize proposals in a couple of weeks for resolving dispute with Etisalat for release of "pending $800 million" of PTCL privatization.

The adviser on Thursday chaired an inter-ministerial committee constituted by the Prime Minister to discuss and resolve the issues related to the PTCL privatization and underlined the need for an early resolution of all outstanding issues regarding the PTCL privatization with Etisalat, asking the stakeholders to finalize proposals in this regard.

During the meeting, the adviser was given a detailed briefing on the issues concerning the transfer of properties to Etisalat and the "pending" payments still to be made by Etisalat.

The adviser called for greater efforts to resolve the outstanding issues in a smooth and amicable manner and asked the government team to contact the senior management of Etisalat to listen to their viewpoint and decide the unresolved issues at the earliest as any further delay is not in the interests of both the parties.

The meeting was attended by Minister for Privatization Muhammad Mian Soomro, Minister for Information Technology Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, secretary finance, secretary privatization, secretary information technology & telecommunication and other senior officials.

Sources said that the government is optimistic that the issue would be resolved as Pakistan and Etisalat were in talks to resolve the issue of pending amount and held various meeting during the years 2016-2018.

Pakistan has transferred all properties to Etisalat except 33 properties and the Prime Minister has asked his economic team to contact the Etisalat. The government assessed the value of the remaining 33 properties at Rs 9.2 billion.

They added that additionally, reconciliation of PTCL properties - conducted by PTCL management, according to their status and category i.e. mutated/transferred, identified as duplicate, non-existing, rented, free of cost possession for use, etc - was also shared with Etisalat, according to Privatization Commission report presented before a standing committee on privatisation.

However, Etisalat in March 2019 disputed the list of no doable properties being 33 by stating that shortfall properties also include 363 properties subtracted from total number of properties listed in schedule 7 of the Sale Purchase Agreement due to peculiar reasons.