KARACHI, Jan 28: Federal Minister for Privatization Altaf M. Saleem said on Monday, the privatization programme will commence afresh in next few weeks after an inevitable suspension because of post-Sept 11 events.

Talking to newsmen after attending a seminar on “challenges to building Pakistan’s economy” jointly organized by Pakistan Economic Forum and Public Relations Management Group, the minister said the process will be taken from where it was last stopped.

He said the off-loading of interest in oil and gas fields was to take place on Oct 18, but has to be postponed as the foreign bidders left the country on account of post-Sept 11 developments and war in Afghanistan.

Altaf M Saleem said out of 14 bidders who took interest in the oil assets, six have returned and two new parties are also showing their interest to participate in the bidding which now takes place by end of March 2002.

Similarly, he said the privatization process of PTCL will be re-initiated from next month as all the interested parties who originally participated have returned and reaffirmed their desire to take up the matter where it was last left.

The marketing for the disposal of Karachi Electric Supply Corporation (KESC), the minister said, will be taken up in April 2002 and assured that only best bidder having good background experience will be handed over the utility.

Responding to a question, he said, the distribution of National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) certificates will be completed by end of February 2002, which will bring the total to 10 per cent.

The disposal process of fertilizer units the minister said would start from March, 2002 and a policy to privatize Pakistan State Oil (PSO) will also be announced.

The three parties who had been pre-qualified for the sell-off of the United Bank Ltd (UBL) have been asked to assess and evaluated the assets of the bank which are spread across the country in the form of branches and other forms.

Earlier, reading his paper on the present economic situation of the country, Mohammed A Rajpar stressed upon a need to develop merchant shipping as only 16 vessels are presently own by the country.

As a result of this, he said 95 per cent of the country’s external trade is handled by foreign shipping lines, which results in a huge bill of $1.5 billion in foreign exchange.

Rajpar said the post-Sept 11 development, which also witnessed the imposing of war risk premium by foreign shipping companies, is an eye opener for the planners, who should immediately promote establishment of shipping companies in private sector.