ISLAMABAD, July 12: The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed the sale of Pakistan State Oil and hinted at forming a larger bench to take up the privatisation process on a challenge moved by the Attock Group against its disqualification from bidding for the concern.

“No further process in the privatisation of the PSO will take place,” ordered a Supreme Court bench comprising Justice Javed Iqbal, Justice Falak Sher and Justice Abdul Hameed Dogar while putting off the hearing for the last week of August.

The government intends to sell 51 per cent of the shareholding of the PSO to the successful bidder.

The judges criticised privatisation of profit-making units, rather than sick units.

At the last hearing, the court served notices on seven bidders participating in the privatisation of the PSO after the petitioner Attock Group had impleaded all bidders participating in the process. Directives were issued also to the Privatisation Commission to submit in the court the entire record of the privatisation process.

However, Advocate Wasim Sajjad, appearing on behalf of the PC, opposed production of the record in the court, but said he could produce it in the judges’ chambers. He said the PSO had been put on sale under the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000, for the third time after due deliberations.

Senior Advocate Khalid Anwar represented the Attock Group, a consortium of National Refinery, Attock Petroleum, Pakistan Oilfields and the Attock Oil Company.

On a query, Advocate Ali Sibtain Fazli, also representing the Attock Group, told the court that privatisation was good for the country if it fetched good money.

The petition seeks to challenge a rejection by the Sindh High Court and pleads that if the consortium was stopped from bidding, as allegedly being planned by the PC, the national exchequer would not fetch reasonable proceeds.

It alleges that there is a mala fide manoeuvre to prevent the Attock Group from taking part in the privatisation of state assets because the consortium has not been officially communicated by the PC about its exclusion from the bidding process.

The petition says the disqualification and exclusion of the consortium from the bidding process violate principles of natural justice.

The consortium has also filed an Expression of Interest for the privatisation of the PSO, followed by the filing of a statement of qualification.