Parliamentary panel terms PTCL sale ‘a shady deal’

[LRE]

By Jamal Shahid
Saturday, 29 Aug, 2009 | 05:01 AM PST |

The NA committee asked the govt not to facilitate the transfer of property and called for a renegotiation of terms. — Photo by APP
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary committee has found the sale of PTCL by the Privatisation Commission to the UAE’s Etisalat to be at best a ‘shady deal’.
The standing committee of the National Assembly on information technology and telecommunications advised the government on Friday not to facilitate the purchaser in any way because it had reservations on the transparency of the PTCL privatisation.

Members of the committee were astounded to learn that the government committed to transfer all properties in PTCL use, but owned by federal or provincial governments, to Etisalat within two years of the deal and even worse – giving the purchaser the right to not pay up until all properties were transferred in its name.

‘How could the federal government sell prime properties owned by a provincial government,’ wondered a member when he learnt that besides 3,000 properties transferred to the company, the federal government still had to transfer over 150 properties with disputed titles because they were owned by the provinces.

The meeting observed that the PTCL sale was meant to attract investment and improve the country’s telecom sector and not enter into sale of the country’s prime assets.

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