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.
The Dispute Between Etisalat & Govt to Resolve Soon
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 Advisor said: “We want to move beyond the status quo maintained on the issue for over a decade and bring the matter to a final settlement, beneficial for our country and our long-term business interests,” He directed the participants to come up with the final proposal for the resolution of the pending payments before the end of this month. 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 the pending amount and held a various meeting during the years. 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. 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 privatization. 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 a total number of properties listed in schedule 7 of the Sale Purchase Agreement due to peculiar reasons. Minister for IT Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was also present in the meeting; the statement said adding that in the presence of all the stakeholders including Secretary IT, Secretary Privatization Commission and Secretary Finance, pending matters regarding the final settlement were discussed in detail. Also Read: Advisor Finance & Revenue to Approach Etisalat For Remaining $ 800M
