- Cabinet likely to hand over three air ports to private sector
Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has summoned a meeting of the federal cabinet mid of next week (April 12th) to discuss and approve important agenda points including two-month extension to the NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) containers.
Official sources told Pakistan Today that the prime minister has summoned the cabinet meeting on Wednesday to discuss and review 29 point agenda. The meeting will review and give approval to various proposals/summaries including handing over of three air ports of Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad to the private sector, and two month extension to the existing memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Pakistan and the US to ensure speedy transit of American cargo through the territory of Pakistan, using Ground Lines of Communication (GLOCs) to and from Afghanistan.
The cabinet meeting is also likely to approve lifting of ban on gas connections for housing societies, commercial and industrial sector, the sources said. Earlier, Ministry of Defence had signed an MoU with the US for a period of three years which expired on Dec 31, 2015. On the request of the US and in consultation with stakeholders, the prime minister extended the validity of the MoU for another year till Dec 31, 2016.
Later, MoU was further extended up to March 31, 2017 with the approval of the cabinet. Also, the cabinet approval has been solicited now to give further extension of two months, upto May 31, 2017 to the duration of the existing MoU. The Defence minister has authorised submission of the summary to the federal cabinet, the sources said.
The US cargo covers non-lethal items including humanitarian items – food, medicines, equipment, and materials designated for free of charge distribution among the people in Afghanistan. Sharing details of the cabinet meeting agenda, the sources said that ex-post approval from the cabinet would be sought regarding release of Rs 37 billion funds from the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for new natural gas expansion schemes of the lawmakers.
They said that the cabinet may submit its nod to the directives of the prime minister regarding cut in the PSDP and release of funds for the gas schemes. The sources also said that the cabinet meeting was also likely to approve initiation of negotiations on inter-governmental agreement between Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources and the Ministry of Economic Development of Italy for the supply of the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to the country.
According to sources, the cabinet will consider outsourcing of airports and miscellaneous facilities to the private sector. They said that the airport infrastructure needs to be modernised in line with changing global standards to cater to the needs of passengers and shippers. At present, all small and medium airports are running in losses due to insufficient passenger traffic and not mentionable commercial activity at most of the airports.
It is relevant to mention here the policy guidelines which are given in the National Aviation Policy 2015 for the development of infrastructure at the airports. Under the policy guidelines, the airports shall be made safer and user friendly. Commensurate with anticipated increase in traffic demand, optimum capacity utilisation and efficient management shall be ensured while appropriate world call airport infrastructure is provided. To achieve this goal, participation by the private sector would be encouraged.
Similarly, the private sector shall be encouraged to construct and/or operate new/existing airports, airstrips, water lakes for amphibian aircraft operations, helipads, heliports including cargo complexes on Build-Operate-Own (BOO) and the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) basis or any other suitable management arrangement, and to raise non-aeronautical revenues from these premises.
The construction for new commercial airports in the private sector will be permitted to meet the growth in air traffic. More, land of all major airports shall be utilised more effectively for commercial purposes with the involvement of the private sector and land at remote and non-operational airports shall be utilised for non-aeronautical commercial and recreational purposes.
The Civil Aviation Authority will be given the task to formulate land lease policy to make it commercially viable for private investors and/or provincial governments without jeopardising aviation activities. Last but not the least, exploiting the commercial and tourism potential of small and medium airports like Gilgit, Skardu, Chitral etc would be explored.
A summary to provide houses to the public on low rates will also be tabled in the meeting. Again, amendments in corporate governance rules 2013, rules of bar coding and initiation of the agreements with different countries will also presented for the grant of the cabinet’s approval.
