05-12-2008, 11:38 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Sell-off list: Privatisation Commission directed to drop PSO, PS and OGDC
ARIF RANA</b>
ISLAMABAD (May 12 2008): On the direction of PPP co-chairman,<b> Asif Ali Zardari, the government has redefined the term 'National Strategic Assets', and directed the Privatisation Commission to drop a number of short-listed entities, including Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan Steel Mills, from the sell-off programme</b>.
Sources said the Privatisation Commission has been asked to strictly follow the 'national strategic assets' principle before offering any public sector entity for strategic sell-off.
<b>The short-listed entities, which on Zardari's direction have been dropped from the sell-off programme beside PSO, PS and OGDC, are Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company (SNGPL).</b>
These entities were short-listed by the Shaukat Aziz government and some of them had become extremely controversial. One may recall Pakistan Steel Mills sell-off which the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) later on scrapped with the direction to refer it back to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for deciding the issue of its strategic importance.
Similarly, some key forces are opposing PSO sell-off, already in litigation, on the ground that it is a strategic asset which needs to be retained by the government to make sure that a public sector player remains in the market to check the private sector's monopoly in downstream petroleum industry. However, the Privatisation Commission can offer shares of the national strategic assets in the local market through public offering.
The Finance Ministry has also been conveyed the decision with the instruction to not to offer OGDC shares for 'exchangeable bond' since it falls in the category of the 'national strategic assets'. The Finance Ministry has been asked to wait and see for appropriate time for issuing sovereign bond. Pakistan's high spread for any future sovereign bond was restricting the government to go to the international market for any new issue.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
ARIF RANA</b>
ISLAMABAD (May 12 2008): On the direction of PPP co-chairman,<b> Asif Ali Zardari, the government has redefined the term 'National Strategic Assets', and directed the Privatisation Commission to drop a number of short-listed entities, including Pakistan State Oil (PSO) and Pakistan Steel Mills, from the sell-off programme</b>.
Sources said the Privatisation Commission has been asked to strictly follow the 'national strategic assets' principle before offering any public sector entity for strategic sell-off.
<b>The short-listed entities, which on Zardari's direction have been dropped from the sell-off programme beside PSO, PS and OGDC, are Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) and Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Company (SNGPL).</b>
These entities were short-listed by the Shaukat Aziz government and some of them had become extremely controversial. One may recall Pakistan Steel Mills sell-off which the Supreme Court of Pakistan (SCP) later on scrapped with the direction to refer it back to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) for deciding the issue of its strategic importance.
Similarly, some key forces are opposing PSO sell-off, already in litigation, on the ground that it is a strategic asset which needs to be retained by the government to make sure that a public sector player remains in the market to check the private sector's monopoly in downstream petroleum industry. However, the Privatisation Commission can offer shares of the national strategic assets in the local market through public offering.
The Finance Ministry has also been conveyed the decision with the instruction to not to offer OGDC shares for 'exchangeable bond' since it falls in the category of the 'national strategic assets'. The Finance Ministry has been asked to wait and see for appropriate time for issuing sovereign bond. Pakistan's high spread for any future sovereign bond was restricting the government to go to the international market for any new issue.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->