The Privatisation Commission informed the CCoP that Pak-Arab Refinery (PARCO), a joint venture company between the Government of Pakistan (GoP) and the Emirate of Abu Dhabi had been on the privatisation list since May 29, 1997. Subsequently, the CCoP in its meeting held on October 3, 2013, approved a list of State-Owned Enterprises (SoEs) for early implementation of the privatisation programme which included privatisation.
CCoP was further informed that PC initiated divestment process for PARCO in November 2014 and requested the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources to provide its views on the divestment of GoP's shareholding in PARCO and to facilitate PC in obtaining consent/ NOC from JV partner in Parco.
However, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources recommended that GoP should continue maintaining its existing 60 per cent shareholding in Parco and it must not offer its 10 percent share to ADPIC or go for divestment through enlisting on stock exchange. Ministry of Petroleum rather proposed to delete Parco from the list of companies being considered for privatisation.
The PC Board considered the proposal of delisting Parco from the list of privatisation in its meeting held on January 19, 2016 and after thorough deliberations; and approved the submission of the case for CCoP consideration. Secretary Petroleum, Arshad Mirza, stated that Parco was a profitable entity. He further argued that the agreement governing the JV( Parco) envisaged that in case the Government of Pakistan decides to dispose of the entity, the other party would have the first right of refusal. The committee was informed that the government of Abu Dhabi had requested the GoP to delist Parco from the list of privatisation. The committee which invariably sets aside the recommendations of different Ministries that oppose inclusion of entities in privatisation list, this time gave consideration to the viewpoint of Secretary Petroleum.