ISLAMABAD: After a debate on the proposed amendments in the Privatisation Commission Amendment Bill, 2014, the Senate Standing Committee on Finance and Revenue added two amended proposals to the bill.
However, the committee dispose of the third amendment related to extending the period for the scrutiny of transaction of privatised state-owned entities from one year to two, three or more years after the completion of privatisation process of any SOE.
“The committee has adopted my amendments partially which is a great honour for me,” the mover of the amendments, Senator Sughra Imam, told this scribe after the committee meeting.
When requested for summing up the proceedings of the committee, Chairperson Senator Nasreen Jalil observed that the committee had disposed of the last amendment and most probably PPP Senator Osman Saifullah or anyone else would move this amendment after refining or rephrasing it in the future.
The committee met here with Senator Nasreen Jalil in the chair to discuss the proposed amendments in the Privatisation Commission (Amendment) Bill, 2014, moved by Senator Sughra Imam in the meeting of the Senate on February 10, 2014.
Privatisation Commission Chairman Muhammad Zubair, Senators including Ilyas Bilour, Sardar Fateh Muhammad Hassani, Osman Saifullah, Sughra Imam and Rafique Rajhwana along with officials from the Privatisation Commission and the Ministry of Law were present in the meeting.
During the course of discussion, the mover briefed the committee on her viewpoint regarding the proposed amendments.
Senator Sughra Imam remarked that she had proposed amendments in the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000, with a view to improve transparency in the privatisation process and ensuring that Pakistan’s economic and strategic interests were duly protected.
Senator Syeda Sughra Imam proposed post-audit of privatisation transactions, arguing that the post-audit of any contract assesses its impacts on the national economy, but has never been done in our country. She quoted the AGP who stated in the Public Accounts Committee that audit is not done properly in the country.
Sugra Imam further said that Pakistan is one of the countries where there is no post-audit of privatisation deals. “No one could raise questions on privatisation had there been a post-audit system in the country,” she added.
Presenting his arguments against the proposed amendments, Privatisation Commission Chairman Muhammad Zubair said that it was not possible for any bidder to get a national security clearance certificate from the government prior to entering in the bidding process.
The question is which authority may issue the said certificate, because if officials of security agencies would start questioning the process from interested investors, no investor would ever tend to invest in Pakistan, he said.
He said that in order to achieve the required objectives, an amendment should be proposed in the policy for investment, and not in the Privatisation Commission Act, 2013.
On the second amendment regarding scrutinising the people behind the bidders prior to the completion of privatisation process or signature on the agreement, Muhammad Zubair was of the view that although law did not permit investment by any investor hailing from India or Israel, it was impossible to investigate the corporate company behind every bidder.
“Currently, the procedure in practice is that the Privatisation Commission share data of every bidder with the Ministry of Defence, National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) and security agencies, and processes applications after getting clearance,” Muhammad Zubar observed.
Moreover, he said that the composition of board of directors, company profile and other information were also shared with the aforesaid organisations as well as pasted on the website of the Privatisation Commission and anyone could point out any persona non grata.
But he said that it was a matter of fact that every American company had hundreds of shareholders and among them Israeli and Indian shareholders could also be present; therefore, it was impossible to oust any company from the bidding process on this justification.
Senator Rafique Rajhwana quoted references from law and the constitution to elaborate his viewpoint, which was meant to support the stance of the Privatisation Commission chairman.
On the third amendment, the committee members were divided in equal numbers; Senators Ilyas Bilour, Rafiq Rajhwana and the chairperson were opponents of the amendment while three senators of same party, Osman Saifullah, Fateh Muhammad Hassani and Sughra Imam were supporters of the amendment. All three opponents of the amendment requested the mover to withdraw her amendment, but she refused.