KARACHI, April 17: The first meeting of the board of directors of Pakistan Textile City Company on Saturday took some major decisions with regard to formation and setting up of a joint stock company.
The meeting was chaired by Secretary, Ministry of Industries and Production, Javed Ashraf Hussain and attended by all the stakeholders in the conference room of the PIDC.
Briefing a hurriedly called press conference, Javed Ashraf Hussain said that the board of directors of the newly established joint stock company - Pakistan Textile City Company - is based upon the equity sharing.
He said the government being a major equity holder of up to 50 per cent out of the total equity of Rs1 billion, was having five directors on the board of total ten directors of the joint stock company.
He said that the nominations of government directors would include secretaries of industries, finance, commerce and economic affair division and one government seat would be given to private sector.
Similarly, he said, there would be five directors from private sector, including one from Sindh government who would be sharing the remaining 50 per cent of the equity equally or Rs50 million each.
Though the number of institutions contributing towards seed money for the joint stock company are ten in number but there will be only five directors on the board which will be held on rotation basis, he added.
Disclosing the names of private sector directors, Javed Ashraf Hussain said that there will be a nominee from National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), PICIC, Pak-Libya, Pak-Oman, Pak-Kuwait, Saudi Pak Investment Company, Export Processing Zone (EPZ), Port Qasim Authority (PQA) and Sindh government.
However, he said these ten have been clubbed down in pairs to appoint their representative on the board at a time on a rotation basis but the first term has been given to NBP, Pak- Kuwait Investment Company, Pak-Oman, EPZ and Sindh government.
Another important decision made in the meeting, he said was with regard to the chairman of the Board for which secretary industries has been elected and secretary economic affairs division has been elected as vice chairman of the Pakistan Textile City Company.
He said that for appointing Chief Executive Officer of the company private sector directors committee had been formed with a mandate to appoint a consultant whose job would be to go for head hunting and making of profile. Thereafter, he said an advertisement would be placed in newspapers and CEO will be selected after short-listing the applicants.
In the meantime, he said, managing director of Pak-Oman Zafar Iqbal had been appointed acting chief executive.
Similarly, Textile Commissioner Mr Idrees Ahmed has been appointed as acting company secretary.
The acting CEO had already asked the shareholders of the company to deposit 10 per cent or Rs5 million in the company account, and four directors have been authorized to run this account.
It was also decided, he said, that the CEO would immediately approach PQA for acquiring land measuring up to 1250 acres and also other civic bodies like KWSB for water, KESC for power and SSGC.
The secretary, Industries said initially 700 acres would be acquired and about 70mw power will be made available and 20 mgd for the textile city. The CEO will also negotiate prices for land and other services, he added.
With regard to registration of the joint stock company, the CEO will apply with SECP on Monday, and the major factor for appointing and filling these posts was to keep the work moving forward for setting up the city, he maintained.
