August 23, 2003	Saturday	Jumadi-us-Sani 24, 1424

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22: The government has decided to exclude 24 hotels and motels of the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) from the privatization list mainly because of their ownership problems.

An official of the Privatization Commission told Dawn on Friday that the process of privatization of these properties would have created multifaceted problems at the final stages. The Privatization Commission Board (PCB) meeting that was held early this month decided to exclude these assets from the sell-off list, he said.

In May 2001 at a meeting presided over by Gen Musharraf, chief executive at that time, it was decided that PTDC hotels, motels and lands should be privatized wherever found feasible and viable. These included 12 motels, three restaurants and PTDC lands located at nine different parts of the country.

The PC had subsequently asked the PTDC to provide details of ownership, land documents, book value and lease documents of these assets. The PTDC, however, responded that they did not have ownership and lease documents of majority of the assets and all available record had already been provided to the Commission.

The PCB had constituted a committee comprising representatives of Tourism Ministry, PTDC and Privatization Commission officials which concluded that sell-off of these assets on the basis of available record would not be possible and would rather create a lot of problems for the government at the time of privatization unless cleared of all disputes and legal issues.

The Privatization Commission Board in its latest meeting decided that any attempt to privatize these 24 properties would create more problems and hence should be excluded from the sell-off list.

Twelve motels are located at Astak, Pirmoglasht, Chamman, Bunni, Chattar Plan, Kitas, Khuzdar, Mohinjodaro, Satpara Lake, Torkham, Hawksbay and Mankial Jabb.

Three restaurants are located at Rawal Dam Rawalpindi, Bahawalpur and Chakdara. Nine lands included Bhamboor, Banjaunsa, Gaddani Beach, Garam Chashma, Hyderabad, Ghazikot, Muzaffarabad, Sukkur and Thalechi.