Roosevelt Hotel not for sale, Senate panel told
PHOTO: Roosevelt Hotel Website
The Senate Standing Committee on Privatisation was informed on Thursday that the federal government had no plans to sell the Roosevelt Hotel in New York rather it was considering under the Privatisation Commission Ordinance a joint venture for the use of the property.
The committee, which met here with its chairman Senator Shamim Afridi in the chair, discussed the privatisation of the Roosevelt Hotel, the SME Bank and the Services International Hotel Lahore and the Sukkur Electric Power Company (Sepco).
About the Roosevelt Hotel, the privatisation ministry gave a briefing to the committee about the deliberations of the Cabinet Committee on Privatisation (CCoP) and the status of implementation of the recommendations given in the previous meetings of the Senate panel.
The committee was informed that the government did not intend to put the Roosevelt Hotel on sale rather the Privatisation Commission (PC) was looking for a joint venture for possible mixed use of the building as per the PC Ordinance.
In this regard, the terms of reference (TORs) had been prepared and sent to the Aviation Division, the committee heard. The official said that the appointment of the financial adviser had been delayed but the process had been resumed by the PC.
The process of privatisation of the SME Bank was discussed in the meeting. The committee recommended that the SME Bank should be affiliated with a reputed bank, preferably the National Bank of Pakistan. Regarding the Services International Hotel, the committee was informed that the matter was pending with the law ministry.
On Sepco, the committee was informed that nine distribution companies (Discos) including Sepco were part of the privatisation process. The meeting was further informed that the Sindh government has already started the negotiation process with Power Division for the acquisition of Hesco and Sepco.
The meeting was attended by senators, Sabir Shah, Rana Mehmood Al Hasan, Anwar Lal Deen, Maulvi Faiz Muhammad, Umar Farooq and senior officials of the privatisation ministry and representatives of relevant departments.