Pakistan, UAE move closer to resolving Etisalat payment row

Monitoring Desk

KARACHI: Pakistan and the UAE are moving closer to resolving more than a decade old dispute of $800 million privatization proceeds from Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) after Etisalat responded with an offer curtailing around $500 million, officials confirmed on Friday.

“They (Etisalat) have sent a proposal of framework of settlement. There are many things including valuation and a non-binding offer. We are considering and would be responding in few days and after that negotiations will be held,” Secretary Privatization Rizwan Malik, told Arab News who decline to divulge the exact amount offered by the Etisalat.

However, an official familiar with the development informed that the amount offered by the Etisalat is around $300 million as the UAE telecom giant has deducted around $500 million in its offer.

To discuss the issue of Etisalat’s pending payment, an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Pakistan’s de facto finance Minister Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was held on Thursday. Minister for Information Technology Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui was also present in the meeting.

“In the presence of all stakeholders .., secretary IT, secretary Privatization Commission and Secretary Finance, pending matters regarding the final settlement were discussed in detail,” a statement issued by the ministry of finance read.

“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 interest,” Shaikh was quoted as saying in the statement.

Shaikh directed the participants to come up with the final proposal for the resolution of the pending payment before the end of this month.

Senate’s standing committee on privatization, on Monday, will also convene a meeting of the concerned stakeholders to discuss the Etisalat’s offer, Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini, chairman of the standing committee, told Arab News.

Shaikh had initially supervised the transaction structure of PTCL’s shares but left the government before its final agreement could be signed.

Pakistan had privatized its national telecommunication company in 2005 through bidding where UAE’s Etisalat emerged as the winner and acquired 26 percent stakes in PTCL with management control for $2.6 billion.

However, Etisalat withheld $800 million on the grounds that Pakistan had not yet mutated some 3,400 properties under the agreement with the government of Pakistan. Out of these properties, only 34 properties are disputed which are not transferable due to legal and security reasons.

Courtesy: (arabnews)