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The Cabinet Committee on Privatisation which met here today under
Chairmanship of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz approved the Voluntary Separation
Scheme (VSS) of PTCL, appreciated the Subscription Results of Habib Bank IPO
and reviewed the schedule for future privatisations.
The secretary, IT & Telecom Division briefed the CCOP on the salient features
of the VSS and informed that the scheme envisages to make the company more
competitive, efficient and would benefit the low-paid employees. It will be
offered to the employees by the end of October 2007 and the employees would be
given two months time to express their voluntary option for the scheme. There
will be no compulsion and the employees would be free to opt or not to opt for
the scheme, the Secretary said.
The Prime Minister emphasised that the voluntary character of VSS of PTCL
should be ensured in its implementation and the low paid employees should get
the maximum benefit. The scheme must ensure non-discriminatory treatment to
the employees who opt to avail this package, the Prime Minister said.
The CCOP was informed that the subscription results of HBL IPO have been very
encouraging and the smaller investors have shown great interest in the IPO.
The Prime Minister said that it reflected the confidence of the investors in
the policies of the government, which are investment friendly. He thanked the
public for active participation and support for the privatisation process
launched by the present government to generate funds for the development of
the country.
The Prime Minister said that the concept of privatisation does not necessarily
mean to sell off the assets of the country. The philosophy behind
privatisation is that the government should focus its attention on making
people friendly and development oriented policies while the private sector
should run the business on competitive terms so as to bring the country at par
with the developed nations. The privatisation law, the Prime Minister said,
has been promulgated to achieve this objective and 90 per cent proceeds of the
privatisation are meant for debt retirement while 10 per cent proceeds go to
poverty alleviation and development projects in the country.
The CCOP reviewed the update on privatisation and noted with satisfaction that
the principles of transparency, competitiveness and open system adopted by the
Privatisation Commission have paid dividends and restored confidence of the
local and foreign investors in Pakistan 's economic policies.
The Secretary, Privatisation Commission informed the CCOP about the progress
on projects under process for privatisation. He informed the CCOP that
privatisation proceeds during the last financial year i.e. 2006-07 amounted to
Rs.120 billion.
The Prime Minister directed the Privatisation Commission to adopt more
innovative and proactive approach to cut down impediments and step up the
privatisation process of the projects under process. Due diligence should be
given to financial evaluation of the projects before bidding, the Prime
Minister added.
Earlier, the meeting started with recitation from the Holy Quran by the
Minister for IT and Telecom Division, Mr. Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari.