ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue on Tuesday heard the views of the mover Senator Sughra Imam on the proposed amendments to the Privatization Act 2013 and deferred further deliberations till next meeting.
The sub-committee met here with convener Senator Talha Mehmood in the chair to resume deliberations on the proposed amendments. However, in the absence of other member Senator Osman Saifullah Khan, the chair decided to get full picture along with the background of the proposed amendments.
The convener was the view point that no final decision could be taken in the absence of Senator Osman Saifullah Khan who was out of the city due to funeral ceremony of his grandmother Begum Kalsum Saifullah a veteran parliamentarian.
Earlier, the mover of the amendments, Senator Sughra Imam while giving insight about her amendments said that she had obtained definition of the National Interests from the National Defence University (NDU). However, both the Chairman Privatization Commission Muhammad Zubair and Secretary Sardar Ahmad Nawaz Sukhera dissented with her views saying that everyone had own and separate definition of the national interests.
Senator Sughra observed that clause related to issuance of National Security Clearance Certificate by the government could further be revised by fixing a time frame for the issuance of said certificate for 30 or 60 days. “In case the federal government fails to issue this certificate in the given timeline, then certificate shall be deemed to be issued automatically,” she added. But Zubair and Sukhera both opposed the amendment saying that it was not clear which organization would be authorized to issue the clearance certificate as well as it would lead to complicating the privatization process.
She further proposed that privatization of the state owned enterprises must not be done on the basis of transfer of ownership rights but on operational rights to secure the national interests. Another amendment proposed by her was to include proviso regarding binding post privatization audit of any entity for not less than ten years. The representative of the Law Division apprised the meeting that natural resources were not privatized because they were leased out for a specific time limit.
This was also opposed by the both, Zubair and Sukhera who were of the view that maintenance and preservation of record of any transaction for such a long time was impossible as well as it was not possible for any government official to defend any privatized transaction made ten years before.
The mover had also proposed that proceeds of any privatization should be spent on public sector rather than foreign debt retirement. She said that government was using 90% of proceeds of privatization on foreign debt retirement while a small amount of 10% was being spent on public sector development.
At this the PC officials were of the view that expenditures of the proceeds of privatization were being made in the light of decision of Council of Common Interest (CCI). “Moreover, retirement of foreign debt was also a prime international obligation of the government as well as most of the privatization was being done to meet this objective,” the PC Chairman observed.
Muhammad Zubair said that the incumbent government had retired foreign debt tune of $ 4.1 billion since taking charge of the affairs of the country. At the end committee offered Fateha for the departed soul and the convener assured to hold next meeting either on Thursday or Friday for compilation of report on the proposed amendments.
