ISLAMABAD: The federal government is considering taking back precious motels of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) from provinces as they were given to provincial governments without meeting the laid-own procedure, a government source told Dawn on Sunday.

The source said that a recently-formed Special Committee on Sacked Employees, headed by Speaker of National Assembly Raja Parvaiz Ashraf, had been given the mandate by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to decide the fate of the motels and sacked employees of PTDC, who have been waiting for their retirement dues for the last several years.

The former government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had handed over 19 most valued motels and resorts of the PTDC to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government in March last year. Handing over all motels of the corporation in Punjab to the provincial government was also under consideration.

A member of the committee, who did not want to be named, said it had come to the notice of the committee that a few years ago the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) had barred the federal government from handing over the PTDC’s assets to provinces as employees of the corporation had informed the court that the federal government was bent upon illegally handing over these resorts and motels of the corporation to provinces free of cost.

NA speaker-led special committee on sacked employees mandated by PM to decide issue

The committee reached a conclusion that assets of the PTDC could be handed over to the provinces only under the Companies Act, 1984, which required hiring of a liquidator to evaluate the market price of all these motels and resorts before handing them over to provinces.

The PTDC has a total of 39 motels and resorts, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Under the 18th amendment the ministry of tourism has been devolved to provinces.

It came into the notice of the committee that after the 18th constitutional amendment, the PTDC board had decided to appoint a liquidator to ascertain the actual value of the PTDC’s assets and liabilities, including legitimate dues of PTDC’s employees like gratuity, leave encashment, provident fund and other perks and privileges the organisation must pay to its deceased and retiring employees.

However, the PTI government had closed all its motels and resorts in the country and terminated services of employees on the pretext of suffering losses continuously due to Covid-19 and that was a major setback to the tourism industry. Later these motels were handed over to the KP government.

A senior official of the PTDC told Dawn that 19 motels of the PTDC were handed over to the KP government.

He said that negotiations with the Punjab government were in the final stage under which all PTDC motels and hotels in Punjab would be handed over to the provincial government.

The official said that the PTDC would retain all its motels in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu & Kashmir and would lease them out by itself.

He said the PTDC had decided to offer a handsome package to its employees as golden handshake but the employees decided to take the matter to court where it was still pending in the court.

On the other hand, employees of the PTDC, who have been sacked two years ago, had opposed the government’s decision about handing over the assets of the corporation and termed this act “illegal”.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2023