ISLAMABAD, Aug 17: The government told the National Assembly on Thursday it did no wrong in selling Pakistan Steel Mills (PSM) but it would honour objections made by the Supreme Court ruling that annulled the deal, before an unconvinced opposition walked out in protest after a five-day debate.

Privatisation and Investment Minister Zahid Hamid, who wound up the debate, rejected opposition charges of corruption and demands for Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to resign over the deal, which the court has scrapped mainly for having been done in ‘indecent haste’ and disregard of the profitability of Pakistan’s largest industrial unit.

Opposition parties walked out to protest against what a spokesman called the prime minister’s failure to personally explain allegations levelled against him for his role as the chairman of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCOP) that had approved the PSM’s sale last march to a consortium of three foreign and domestic groups for Rs21.6 billion.

“Resign, resign,” opposition members chanted as they stormed out of the chamber after the minister’s speech, before Speaker Chaudhry Amir Hussain adjourned the house until 10am on Friday, saying he knew this would happen.

Mr Aziz, who has been the focus of opposition attacks, did not attend any sitting during the lower house debate that began last Friday and continued for five days with two days’ recess as well as a similar debate in the Senate since Tuesday, although he has been coming to his chamber in the parliament house.

The opposition calls the court ruling a charge-sheet against the government and plans to cite it as a major ground for a no-confidence move against the prime minister to be brought in the National Assembly on Aug 23.

Mr Hamid said the Privatisation Commission and the CCOP had acted in accordance with the privatisation law and rules from the stage of advertising the PSM sale to the approval of the deal and added that the objections made by the apex court arose basically from difference of interpretation of rules.

“Let me say with all emphasis at my command that all actions of the Privatisation Commission and the CCOP were in accordance with bona fide interpretation of rules and regulations,” he said.

However, he said, the government had implemented both the court directives to reconstitute the Council of Common Interests and refer the matter to this body for fresh consideration and promised that necessary steps would be taken to meet the court’s objections when the PSM would be offered for sale again and in future privatisation deals.

“We will proceed vigorously with our privatisation programme in an open, fair and transparent manner (and offer the units) in the right way, to the right people and at the right price,” he said about the future.

The deposit of 25 per cent of the bid amount had been refunded to the successful bidders and the Privatisation Commission “will undertake the whole process de novo (afresh),” the minister said, apparently ruling out any government move to request the Supreme Court for a review of its judgment.

He said the court’s 80-page judgement, whose text was issued on Aug 8 to follow a short order on June 23, had nowhere imputed corruption, mala fides or ulterior motives to the Privatisation Commission or the CCOP and accused the opposition parties of ‘unnecessarily’ playing it up and giving it a political colour.

Apparently replying to the court’s objections, the minister said no concessions were offered to the successful bidders after the bidding as all bidders were informed of the incentives during the process of due diligence and rules were violated in what he called an expeditious completion of the sale, which the court called ‘indecent haste’.

He also said there were no violations in qualifying the Arif Habib group as a partner with 20 per cent share in the buying three-party consortium despite some pending litigations, PSM’s valuation on what he called internationally recognised discounted cash flow basis instead of assets valuation method and allowing the bidders to be registered as an offshore company under a different name in what he called special purpose vehicles facility for tax savings.