KARACHI, June 23: The annulment of Pakistan Steel’s privatisation by a nine-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday and the court’s order to refer the issue to the Council of Common Interests (CCI) may open the floodgates of petitions seeking judicial review of partial or total disinvestment of about 200 entities, fetching about Rs400 billion over the past 15 years.

Financial analysts differ on the implications of the judgment as some believe that all past transactions are closed but future privatisations will need approval of the CCI.

But Taj Haider, a former PPP senator, is convinced that that the verdict has paved way for petitions to seek judicial review of privatisations of PTCL and KESC and many other deals.

“Injustices have to be addressed and corrected no matter when this injustice was done,” the former senator said.

“There have been a lot of deviations in privatisation of the PTCL and KESC,” an activist of the KESC Employees Union said. In case of KESC, the highest bidder backed out after receiving threats, and the second highest bidder was given an opportunity.

The company which now runs the KESC is registered in Cayman Islands, a tax haven.

There was an inordinate delay in finalisation of the PTCL deal. It happened only after the successful bidder had been given many concessions.

The Supreme Court did not accept a plea that the CCI had taken up the Pakistan Steel privatisation issue in 1997 and did not need a fresh review.

It observed that times had changed and it was an altogether a new situation that warranted a fresh review.

The Supreme Court has now asked the government to constitute CCI in next six weeks.

However, some analysts are not sure that the government will revitalise the CCI. One of them cited the example of the NFC award. The government failed to reach a consensus in the National Finance Commission, another constitutional body. Constituted in the year 2000 and re-constituted in 2003, the NFC failed to reach a consensus.

This was despite the fact that governments of three provinces follow the centre’s line and the one in NWFP has not proved to be difficult for Islamabad to handle. Finally, the president had to intervene and amend the NFC award. Can this be done in the case of CCI. Any unsettled matter in the CCI is required to go to a joint session of parliament. Will the government be able to take the long constitutional route on privatisation of Pakistan Steel and other entities on which opinions are sharply divided and elections are not far away.

The PSM case will also be remembered for one special feature. It brought two brothers face to face against each other in a legal battle. Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, a former minister in the PPP government from 1971 to 1977 who also headed the CCI, represented the federal government.