The CCoP headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar also directed the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Law Ministry to assist Privatisation Commission in this regard. According to official documents, Privatisation Division informed the CCoP that IDBP was set up in 1961 under the IDBP Ordinance, 1961 as a scheduled bank for extending credit facilities to industrial sector. The IDBP (Reorganisation and Conversion) Act, 2011, was enacted on May 14, 2011, for reorganisation and conversion of IDBP into a public limited company. Under the aforesaid Act, a new banking company was established in the name of Industrial Development Bank Limited ('IDBL'), and all the assets, contracts, liabilities, proceedings and undertakings of IDBP were subsequently transferred and vested in IDB. On October 13, 2015, Prime Minister approved the proposal and recommendations of State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and Finance Division to initiate the privatisation process of IDBL.
Salient features of the proposal were as follows: (i) Privatisation Commission may be advised to initiate necessary process for the revival/privatisation of the IDBL ;(ii) Financial Advisor/Consultant may be appointed for evaluating and proposing suitable transaction structure for IDBL;(iii) Privatisation Commission may impose a condition that the potential bidders should preferably have experience of financial sector and successful track record for turning around a financial sector institution; (iv) Privatisation Division stated that the PC Board, in its meeting held on January 19, 2016, approved the inclusion of IDBL in the privatisation program for early implementation and recommended that this should be submitted to the CCoP for its final approval.
The CCoP urged the Minister for Law & Justice to examine the privatisation law, and advised the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) and Law & Justice Division to render assistance to the DFI enabling it to restart its functions with simple processes and to revisit the old process. After detailed discussion, the CCoP approved inclusion of IDBL in the privatisation program, the sources concluded.