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The privatisation process of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company (Pesco) would be completed before next financial year when the company would be handed over to private sector to run its affairs. This was stated by Director General, Privatisation Commission, M. Mansoor Zubair while talking to Business Recorder. He said that the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan had already appointed a financial advisor to review its structure and make it saleable in the market.

He said that after completion of the work of financial advisor to make it prepare for the privatisation, he would have to give a presentation before a board constituted by the Privatisation Commission of Pakistan for this special task. The board would later send it for formal approval from Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) for final approval.

Mansoor Zubair was confident that the company responsible for electricity distribution through out NWFP would soon be ready for privatisation.

When asked about the modus operandi of the privatisation of Pesco, he said that the procedure of the privatisation would be different from Kapco, whose shares would be presented to the people through Initial Public Offer (IPO) rather it would be handed over to private sector as a whole entity.

It has worth to mention here that people of the North West Frontier Province

(NWFP), which produce a big chunk of the hydel generated electricity is opposing the privatisation of the company. In this connection, the NWFP Assembly had already passed a unanimous resolution against the privatisation of Pesco. The provincial assembly had even called for the handing over the company to the provincial government.

The NWFP government is already engaged in dispute with the federal government over the minimum payment as net profit on hydel generation to the province. Both governments and public representatives are of the view that the privatisation of the company would further deteriorate the situation.

Presently, federal government pays Rs 6 billion annually to NWFP as net profit on hydel generation, the province is demanding increase in the amount.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2005


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