ISLAMABAD: The government on Monday (today) would present “The Privatisation Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2024” in the National Assembly for passage.

According to a copy of the bill available with this correspondent, the Privatisation Appellate Tribunal would be constituted under this proposed legislation. For this purpose, the Privatisation Commission Act, 2000 will be amended.

According to clause-2(2) of the bill, “The Appellate Tribunal, for the purposes of hearing and deciding civil and criminal matters under this Act, have the same powers as are vested in a civil court.”

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The Tribunal has the powers of; “(a) summoning and enforcing the attendance of any person and examining his on oath, (b) requiring the discovery and production of documents and material objects, (c) receiving evidence on affidavits, (d) issuing commissions for examination of witnesses and documents.”

The Appellate Tribunal would consist of a chairperson, one technical member and one judicial member. A retired judge of the Supreme Court shall be appointed as Chairperson of the Tribunal.

The term of office of the chairman and members of the Tribunal shall be three years. The age of the members of the Tribunal shall not exceed 65 years. The purpose of the Tribunal’s work is to complete the privatisation process in a fair and transparent manner.

The Clause-3 of the bill further described as “Any person aggrieved by an order of the Appellate Tribunal may within sixty days thereof prefer an appeal to the Supreme Court.”

The Tribunal shall have the exclusive power of Civil Court. The amendments in Act will ensure timely resolution of privitisation-related disputes, thus, resulting in expeditious closure of privatisation transactions and meeting the mandate set forth in the Act.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024