ISLAMABAD, Nov 19: The Board of Privatization Commission on Friday approved the recommendations of the pre-qualification committee for Pak-Arab Fertilizers Limited and pre-qualified seven parties.

PC Board which met under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Privatization & Investment Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh also approved three other parties as conditionally pre-qualified subject to submission of remaining requisite information in stipulated time-frame.

The minister said that the government was determined to deregulate public sector through transparent and competitive privatization process to benefit the common man.

He said that there was immense need to improve various sectors of the economy to bring in efficiencies for providing quality services to the domestic and commercial consumers. He directed to provide comfort to the investors through effective policy measures, which should also take due care of the consumer's interests.

Dr Hafeez said that through the privatization process the government had reduced the fiscal burden and the losses and at the same time the privatized entities had started contributing through generating revenue and simultaneously adding value to the government's remaining shareholdings in such units.

The government was committed to the economic and structural reforms process through the privatization in the public sector entities following a transparent and competitive process, he said.

The PC Board recommended the inclusion of Initial Public Offering of GoP shares in State Life Insurance Company (SLIC) and Pakistan Steel and allowed to initiate the process for appointment of lead manager for both entities from the PC panel through a competitive process in consultation with the respective stakeholders.

The respective lead manager and the adviser also gave the PC Board presentation on the forthcoming IPO of Kot Addu Power Company (Kapco) and the privatization status of CTI to take forward these transactions.

The PC Board also reviewed the progress and status of various other ongoing transactions. While appreciating the performance of Privatization Commission, the board also approved its annual report for the year 2004 for publication. The PC Board members, senior officials of the respective ministries and other organizations attended the meeting. -APP