ISLAMABAD, Sept 19: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Tuesday the Corporate and Industrial Restructuring Corporation (CIRC) would wind up its operation on September 22, 2006.

Chairing the concluding meeting of the CIRC board at the Prime Minister secretariat he said that the CIRC had accomplished the objectives for which it was set up six years ago.

The premier was informed that after its expiry the residual business of CIRC would be transferred to National Bank of Pakistan.

Mr Aziz said that the CIRC was set up to clean the balance sheets of the government-owned financial institutions and to facilitate their privatisation. Its other main objective was to revive the sick industrial units and accelerate creation of employment opportunities.

He said the corporation had to its credit to help clean balance sheets of six banks for the purpose of privatisation and helped revival of about 100 industrial companies and facilitated additional investment of over Rs2 billion by new entrepreneurs--all of which led to generation of over 30,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities in the country. The prime minister was informed that the CIRC helped clean the balance sheets of Habib Bank Limited, United Bank Limited, National Development Finance Corporation, Industrial Development Bank of Pakistan, National Bank of Pakistan and Allied Bank of Pakistan for privatisation and corporate merger.

Of these four banks had been privatised. During its operations the CIRC disposed of 151 Non Performing Assets (NPAs) resulting in a surplus of over Rs1 billion for the government of Pakistan. Additionally, 252 NPAs having gross debt value of Rs45.9 billion were also restructured and rescheduled through the corporation’s intermediation at the end of referring banks and DFIs.

The meeting was informed that the CIRC resumed its work in the minimal start-up time. It completed repayment of government loan of Rs145 million along with mark-up before its final maturity. The CIRC made the gross recoveries of Rs5.381 billion and created gross surplus of Rs1.102 billion for government through disposal actions of assets.