Daily Times

UAE telecom company Etisalat has submitted a framework of settlement to the government for the long-outstanding payment of $800 million against shares of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL).

Etisalat had, on June 18, 2005, acquired 1.36 billion shares or a 26 per cent stake in PTCL for $2.598 billion. The government has a 62 per cent stake in PTCL.

Etisalat’s proposal as well as the outstanding payment came up during an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Adviser to Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh in Islamabad on Thursday. Minister for Information Technology Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was also present at the meeting.

Secretary Privatisation Rizwan Malik told a news website that the framework will be discussed by all stakeholders – privatisation commission and ministries of finance and information technology.

It is exactly after 12 years that Etisalat has come up with a proposal for the settlement of the issue. The delay in settlement pertains to the non-transference of property to the telecom company due to legal complications.

“It is not only an issue of the non-transference of property, there are some other elements too in the framework of the settlement that require attention,” said Malik, adding that a positive outcome of the exercise was expected by the end of the month.

During the meeting, Shaikh urged the federal secretaries of finance, information technology and privatisation commission to come up with a final proposal for the resolution of the pending payments before the end of January. “We want to move beyond the status quo maintained on the issue for over a decade and bring the matter to a final settlement beneficial for our country and our long-term business interests,” said Shaikh. It is pertinent to mention here that the issue of payment was discussed by the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology exactly a year ago and since then no progress had been made regarding a resolution. The payment has remained stalled due to the non-transference by the government of 33 properties to PTCL whereas the government had provided the UAE telecom company the list of all 3,248 properties. The properties that could not be transferred to Etisalat were either partially owned, rented out by provinces but occupied by the federal government, or were not owned by the company in the first place. Officials said the government has already evaluated the market price of the remaining 33 properties which could not be transferred to PTCL and informed Etisalat.