Federal Minister for Finance Senator Ishaq Dar chaired a meeting to review the progress made by the Privatization Commission following the time line for the divestment of three entities already approved by the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) at the Finance Ministry on Thursday.
Minister of State for Privatization Muhammad Zubair in a detailed briefing explained that the commission had been working with complete vigilance and efficiency to balance the competing objectives of maximizing sale proceeds while adequately addressing labour, social and environmental issues.
He said as the first step towards divesting shares in state-owned entities, OGDCL, PPL and UBL will be offered to general public through prospective capital markets and the appointment of the financial advisors in this regard will be completed by the third week of March, 2014. He informed that out of the total shares held by the government of Pakistan, only 10-20 percent shares would be offered in the capital market which would expectedly bring PKR 137 billion in proceeds.
The federal minister directed the privatization commission to exercise due diligence in the preparation of the offer circular. The federal minister also said that possible pre-strategic partnership restructuring would be undertaken by the government to act as a catalyst factor in attracting private sector strategic partnerships and investment. He said while putting in place credible plans for restructuring, due process should not be compromised. He said the whole process would also provide PSEs the incentive and flexibility to pursue long-term investment plan thus liberating the government from micro-management of PSEs.
The federal minister further directed the Privatization Commission chairman to bring out a detailed plan of the operations and the expected time lines to meet the targets in the next meeting.
