ISLAMABAD, Sept 28: The corporatisation of Central Directorate of National Savings (CDNS) has been further delayed in order to first determine the status of its employees before the organisation is fully converted into Pakistan Savings.

Informed sources told Dawn on Friday that Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and one senior official of the establishment division have asked the CDNS officials to re-draft the rules for the employees of the organisation before its corporatisation to avoid problems at a later stage.

However, the government assured the IMF earlier this month that a comprehensive corporatisation and automation of the CDNS will be achieved during the current financial year so that it could work as Pakistan Savings from 2008-09.

Sources said although Pakistan was not obliged to give assurances to IMF as not being its active member, its recommendations could not be readily rejected as it could hurt the country’s credit rating.

The CDNS had given the option to its employees either to retain their present status of serving as civil servants or to opt for a corporate employee. This was done in line with former Telephone and Telegraph department (T&T) and former Corporate Law Authority (CLA), which were later converted into Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP), respectively.

But now the prime minister, sources said, wanted some unified grades which could be offered to the employees of the new organisation after the restructuring of the CDNS. The objective is to avoid litigation by any employees of the organisation.

It is also said that once these issues were resolved the president will be requested to promulgate the ordinance for launching Pakistan Savings. At the same time it is also being considered that the matter should be legislated through the parliament. \

The CDNS, its total stocks have risen to Rs1.067 trillion and it distributed Rs178 billion profits to its investors in 2006-07, said a senior official.

It also received gross new investment of Rs483.549 billion and “we repaid Rs415.898 billion during the last financial year.

Earlier, the central bank had allowed the CDNS to sell its products in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries for which negotiations were being finalised with foreign banks who would work on behalf of the directorate.

The plan is to sell government securities in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar. The CDNS is already selling its products in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman and Bahrain through Habib Bank Limited (HBL) and the United Bank Limited (UBL).

In addition to that a number of other new Islamic products were being prepared to be offered to the general public once the CDNS achieved autonomy soon.

Currently, CDNS has 5 million investors which include 2 million who are doing business through banks and the post offices.