The standing committee reviewed the progress being made by Privatization Commission to forward 14 cases for investigation to National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to recover Rs 82.3 billion outstanding dues owed by several parties. This includes Rs 81.3 billion owed by Etisalat against the acquisition of 26 percent shares in PTCL in 2005. In a briefing on PTCL''s privatization, the secretary informed the committee that Etisalat acquired a controlling stake in PTCL at a price of $2.6 billion in 2005 but after gaining knowledge about the second lowest bid being $1.4 billion, it retracted from its offer.
Out of roughly 3,500 properties of PTCL, he said 33 could not be transferred by Pakistan and the entity had been informed about it. "We want to resolve the issue amicably and bilaterally without involving international court for dispute settlement," he added. The secretary privatization informed the panel that these 14 cases were at different stages of trial and recoveries. He said that an Etisalat team was in Pakistan for talks.
The secretary maintained that the government had issued notices with expiry of 30 days to 13 defaulters but it did not issue a notice to Etisalat due to sale-purchase agreement (SPA) with Etisalat. He said appropriate actions would be taken against the defaulters as per law on the expiry of 30 days. In the briefing, the secretary said that it was a big success that the Etisalat was brought back on table for talks. He said the government is ready to resend the Etisalat a final shortfall notice with recent valuation of 33 properties. "Etisalat will consider our valuation and carry out its valuation and higher valuation will be acceptable as per SPA," the secretary said.
Irfan Ali shared that primary reason for non-recovery from Etisalat was because of its exceptionally high bid for PTCL. He added that Etisalat is making a few additional demands which are not part of SPA. Citing example, he said the PTCL management will look into monopoly of Special Communications Organization (SCO) over telecom sector in AJK & Baltistan. The SCO is a government organization operated by Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication and maintained by Pakistan Army. The SCO is playing a major role in providing telecommunication services in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
The secretary said the government allowed SCO a monopolistic approach in designated areas under the law. The SCO is showing further interest to cover the additional areas in Pakistan and it has also applied for a licence, he added. Responding to a question, the secretary said that PTCL is a profitable entity even after privatization. Since privatization, its annual profit is between Rs 10 billion and Rs 14 billion. The strength of employees, he said, was reduced from 70,000 to 16,000 through various golden shake-hand and VSS schemes. The management of PTCL is also working to modernize the telecom system of the company by introducing updated equipment and expansions. Minister for Privatization Daniyal Aziz termed resuming talks with Etisalat a big success.