A meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) excluded five properties from the list of 32 properties placed on privatization list by giving three of these to Naya Pakistan Housing project.
The meeting of the CCoP chaired by Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, sources said, expressed displeasure why those properties were included in the privatization list, which were not clear.
Sources said that the list of properties identified for disposal owing to title issue are: (i) Pakistan Post property, Jhangi Syedian, F-15 Islamabad, 18 kanal and 8 marla and; (ii) Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) Inland Revenue Service (IRS) Colony Lahore, 4.3 kanal.
The CCoP approved handing over of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting commercial /agriculture land at High Power Transmitting Station, Mohlanwal, Multan Road, Lahore, 841.6 kanal, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's commercial land of Receiving Centre Pipri, Karachi, 928 kanal, and FBR's property at Hawkes Bay Road, Mauripur, Karachi, 500 acre, to Naya Pakistan Housing Project.
The CCoP directed the ministries and divisions to submit clear and alternate properties against the properties excluded from the privatization list.
The Privatization Commission appointed a consortium of M/s Riaz Ahmad & Co, M/s CKR & ZIA and M/s Anderson Consulting (Pvt) Ltd as financial advisor in October 2019 for sale of these federal government properties. The FA will asses the value of these properties and finalize the future strategy.
After a cabinet's decision, every ministry was tasked to identify at least three properties that are unutilized and 32 such properties have been identified.
The asset management committee of the federal government, relevant federal ministries and provincial governments were given a task in December 2019 to resolve all matters pertaining to the identified properties, so that the decision about their proper utilization could be implemented.
Proper utilization of these properties and pieces of land, worth billions of rupees, which have been kept unused for years, and income generated from these properties would be spent on public welfare and provision of basic facilities like schools, colleges and hospitals.
The CCoP in meeting held on November 14, 2019 declined a proposal from Earthquake Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Authority (ERRA) for the delisting of 17 properties until June 2020.
The Privatization Commission argued that 17 properties belonging to ERRA had been picked up for privatization in pursuance of a federal cabinet's decision of 7th March 2019. The Privatization Commission also submitted that it had already hired a financial adviser for the sale of the 32 properties and withdrawal of properties as being proposed by the EERA would adversely affect the whole privatization process, besides sending negative signal to potential buyers and investors. The meeting also declined another proposal of the Commerce Division for delisting from privatization of a 15-acre plot situated in an industrial area in Multan on the grounds that the same plot could be utilized more efficiently for some other purpose rather than being sold at a possibly low price. The CCoP decided that the privatization of the asset in question would go ahead as already decided by the government.
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