ISLAMABAD: The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of National Assembly on Wednesday directed Auditor General to conduct a detailed audit of agreement related to the sale of 26% shares of PTCL.
The PAC met here under the chairmanship of Sayed Khursheed Shah and attended by other members of committee including Sayed Naveed Qamar, Shafqat Mehmood, Azra Fazal Pechuho, Raja Javed Ikhlas, Shahida Akhtar Ali, Junaid Anwar Chaudhary, Dr. Arif Alvi, Sardar Ashiq Hussain Gopang and officials of relevant institutions.
During meeting, the Chairman Privatization Commission Muhammad Zubair informed the body that National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has identified flaws and lack of coordination between Etisalat and Ministry of Information Technology in agreement of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) privatization.
He apprised the committee that $ 800 millions are due towards Etisalat because the PTCL property could not be transferred to Etisalat in accordance with the agreement.
Zubair said that out of total 3250 PTCL properties, 180 were transferred during regime of Pakistan Peoples' Party (PPP), 97 during present tenure while other 34 properties worth of $ 92.04 could not be transferred so far.
Chairman PAC Sayed Khursheed Shah directed to present the investigation report of NAB regarding the PTCL privatization agreement, within two weeks.
He said no institution including the PTCL is beyond the accountability under the constitution.
Chairman Privatization said that only the institutions that causing heavy loss to state and has failed to facilitating the public are being privatized.
He said electricity distribution companies would be privatized next year, which would save the loss of Rs. 500 billion.
Sayed Khursheed Shah remarked that the distribution companies that are causing loss to national exchequer should be given priority in privatization.
Evaluating the performance of Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the committee noted that the contractor of Benazir Bhutto International Airport project was given special favor and paid 73.720 million to level land for site preparation of the engineer's office.
The committee directed the officials of CAA to recover the amount from contractor.
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