In view of the commitment to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) on Thursday allowed the Privatisation Commission to go ahead with the plan for divestment of Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM), Kot Addu Power Company Ltd (KAPCO) and listing of shares of FESCO and IESCO on the stock exchange through the IPO.
Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar chaired the CCOP meeting which considered proposals regarding divestment of Pakistan Steel Mills, PIA, KAPCO and power sector entities. It discussed financial and administrative situation prevailing in the PSM.
It was observed that despite massive efforts, there had been no serious engagement by the Sindh government on the offer made by the federal government to acquire the PSM. CCOP, therefore, allowed the Privatisation Commission (PC) to go ahead with the plan for divestment of the PSM following due process.
The committee discussed restructuring of Pakistan International Airlines Corporation Limited (PIACL) and said that its decision of May 7 should be fully implemented. The decision called for completing the corporatisation process of PIACL and finalising the matter regarding separation of core and non-core business.
The committee allowed the PC to initiate process for listing of shares of FESCO and IESCO on the stock exchange through the IPO. It was decided that the government will retain control of companies as well as the management.
The CCOP also approved divestment of the government’s residual share holding in Kot Addu Power Company (KAPCO). Accordingly, all of the government stake in KAPCO held via WAPDA will be divested which comes to 40.25 per cent of the issued share capital, amounting to 354,311,133 shares. Further, the transaction will be executed as a strategic sale to a qualified bidder.
The finance minister directed that principle of transparency must be ensured in the divestment process.
