ISLAMABAD, Dec 29: The Senate on Monday decided to hold a debate on the privatization of Habib Bank Limited (HBL) after MMA member Prof Khursheed Ahmed feared the bank might be purchased by groups influenced by Indian lobby.

Earlier at the outset, ARD members staged a walkout from the Senate to protest against what they called preventing members from entering or leaving the parliament building by closing its gates on Sunday night when the National Assembly was discussing the 17th Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Prof Khursheed drew the attention of Senate Chairman Mohammadmian Soomro on a point of order to discuss the privatization of an extremely successful bank, having great strategic importance due to its huge financial network with assets worth Rs400 billion and over 1,000 branches, including 48 branches in 26 countries. He suggested the members to discuss the matter by constituting a house committee.

Senator Waqar Ahmed also supported Prof Khursheed and held the process discriminatory by providing priority to the foreign investors for being more viable than local investors.

Leader of the House Wasim Sajjad, however, asked the member to move a motion under house procedures to discuss the issue in a proper manner.

The Minister for Privatization and Investment, Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh, tried to convince the senators by assuring them that the process was completely transparent and had the approval of the privatization board and the successive cabinets. He also welcomed the proposal of constituting a Senate committee to discuss HBL privatization in a threadbare manner.

He said the government had adopted a two-pronged privatization strategy for the public sector enterprises by putting on sale large stakes like cement factories, banks and fertilizer plants and at the same time involving the public by offering shares through stock market.

The experience of offering shares of Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) through the stock exchange was so successful that it attracted Rs28 billion when initially shares worth Rs3.5 billion were offered for sale. This reflected the keen interest of the people, he said.

“Therefore, the government has decided to offer the shares of Sui Southern Gas Company, Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL), Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) and Kot Addu Thermal Power Company in a similar fashion from Jan 8 to 10, next year.”

The purpose of the privatization was to boost government revenues, he said, and explained that it was moral responsibility of the government to hand over business to professionals having experience of running institutions in a sound manner. He also assured the house that the regulations of the State of Bank of Pakistan (SBP) was very tight and were strictly adhered to.

Supporting his colleague in the cabinet, Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz said the privatization process was taking place under a fully transparent privatization law ensuring level playing field to all investors.

The government had also strengthened the SBP by giving it autonomy to regulate the banking process in the country in accordance with the international norms.

Khalid Ranjha and Javed Ashraf Qazi also supported Prof Khursheed by saying the privatization was not in question but apprehensions were being expressed on the way the HBL was being put to bidding. They suggested to opt for the route of privatization through stock exchange.

Earlier, during the proceedings the Senate chairman informed the house that the National Assembly speaker had ordered for an inquiry into the incident of closing the gates of the parliament building.

The issue was raised by PKMAP Senator Raza Mohammad Raza on a point of order and said the privilege of the members was breached as they were not allowed to leave the premises of the parliament house.

PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said the ARD was boycotting the session because of the new practice of the Senate staff who switched on the microphones of the treasury benches before the chair recognized the member.