ISLAMABAD, Jan 28: The Board of Privatisation Commission will meet on Tuesday to discuss the slow process of privatisation, including the early listing of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) of various public sector entities on the world stock markets.

Federal Minister for Privatisation and Investment Shahzada Alam Monnoo will chair the meeting, which will also formulate recommendations for the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) and review the status and progress of the ongoing and upcoming transactions.

The meeting will discuss the reports of the ongoing transaction committees regarding pre-qualification of the potential bidders, finalisation of transaction structure and approval of Request for Statement of Qualification (RSoQ) for certain entities.

Informed sources told Dawn that not much had been planned to disinvest state sector entities after the induction of the caretaker government due to which the scheduled GDR transactions of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Habib Bank Limited (HBL) could not be completed by December 30, 2007.

Former prime minister Shaukat Aziz and ex-minister for Privatisation and Investment Zahid Hamid had been assuring that the GDRs of NBP and HBL will be completed on schedule by December 30 last year.

Sources said that the planned transaction of Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Bank, Hazara Phosphate and Fertiliser Limited and Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Pakistan Steel Mills. Corporatisation of PSMC was also not expected to be completed on time. And the issue will come up for detailed discussions during the Tuesday’s meeting.

The mega transaction of Pakistan State Oil (PSO) had already been delayed after having been challenged in the Supreme Court.

Similarly, the second public offering and GDR of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) was also in doldrums.

Sources said that a number of transactions were already late even during the previous PML (Q) government due to the growing political instability in the country. “During Shaukat Aziz’s government, privatization process had been put on the back burner and now the caretakers, perhaps have also no interest to revive the privatisation process in the country,” a source said.

Two mega transactions - the Sui Northern Gas Pipeline Limited (SNGPL) and Sui Southern Gas Company (SSGC) - were postponed by the previous government on the insistence of its provincial and national assembly legislators, who thought that they needed to offer gas connections to their voters before the forthcoming elections.

Moreover, sources said the controversial Pakistan Steel Mills’ deal, which was scrapped by the Supreme Court in March 2005, was still haunting the investors to opt for any transaction.

Sources said that ever since political turmoil started in Pakistan, no investment related conference was convened by the Board of Investment (BoI).

Both the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) had been calling upon the government to improve the investment climate by achieving certain political stability in order to lure local and foreign investors.

They had also urged the caretaker government to address the “image problem” to attract investment from across the world.

However, sources said that the caretaker government had agreed to off-load the government shareholding in seven joint investment companies through Initial Public Offering (IPO) with a view to benefit them and at the same time add value to the developing portfolio of stock markets.

The proposal was favoured by representatives of Pak-Kuwait Investment Company (PKIC), Pak-Libya Holding Company (PLHC), Saudi Pak Industrial Agricultural Investment Company (SPIACO), Pak Oman

Investment Company (POIC), Pak-Brunei Investment Company (PBIC), Pak-Iran Joint Investment Company (PIJIC) and Pak-China Investment Company (PCIC). However, they said that some of the issues needed to be sorted out before formally opting for IPOs.

In this regard, both sides decided that the ministry of finance and the Privatisation Commission should further evaluate the feasibility of off-loading some shares of the government in joint ventures with these seven companies.

Sources said that the issue was earlier discussed between the State Bank of Pakistan and the ministry of finance and they were informed about the latest business situation in these companies.

The PC board members will attend the meeting. They are: Iftikhar-ul-Haq, Lahore; Mahmood Nawaz Shah, Hyderabad; Kamal-ud-Din Ahmed, Quetta; Shakeel Z. Lari, Karachi; Pir Saad Ahsanuddin, Lahore; Azam Faruque, Karachi; Sikandar M. Khan, Lahore; Zafar Iqbal Sobhani, Karachi; and Pervaiz Kausar, Karachi.