ISLAMABAD, June 21: The Privatization Commission (PC) has finalized arrangements to dispose of a number of transactions by December 2003, including Pakistan Telecommunication Company Ltd (PTCL), says secretary PC Ahmad Waqar.

“Various issues concerning PSO debt have been resolved with the government and this public sector entity is also now ready for privatization,” he said.

Talking to Dawn here on Saturday, he said the date for bidding for PSO would be announced soon after resolving some transactional issues with the bidders.

About the PTCL, Waqar said, interest had been shown by foreign investors including Turkish company - Cukorava, besides Orascom of Egypt and Oger of Saudi Arabia. The Turkish company, he pointed out, had been prequalified and was now in the process of forming a consortium to take part in the privatization of the PTCL.

Bidders, for this transaction, he said, had been prequalified under a two-tier process. During the first tier, they would be eligible for due diligence for which they had been prequalified and in tier two which involved bidding, they would be prequalified for the process after meeting all the transactional requirements.

He said there has been a lot of improvement in the international business environment and now the PC hoped to get a better price for the PTCL.

“But for Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC) we may have to invite fresh Expressions of Interest (EoIs) from outside the country,” he said. He said that a lot of interest was being shown by some foreign companies to take part in the privatization of the KESC. “One Saudi Kunnoz group is very much interested in the KESC,” he said adding that this group was currently trying to associate with it an operator to run the company after its privatization. He said MS ABB of Germany which was a manufacturer of joint power equipment, and AES power company were expected to take part in the privatization of the KESC.

“Then we have decided to appoint a Lead Manager in July for off-loading 5 per cent shares of the Pakistan International Airlines Corporation (PIAC) within three to four months time,” he said.