Meeting discussed transfer of 131 properties to PTCL. CREATIVE COMMONS
Pakistan’s hopes of finding an early solution to its ongoing row with Etisalat – the owner of 26% of shares of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited – were dashed after talks on Wednesday failed to achieve breakthrough.
Talks to resolve the seven-year-old dispute over Rs800 million in outstanding payments were held in Islamabad. According to an official statement, the Pakistani delegation was led by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar and the Etisalat delegation was led by the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Ahmad AK Juffar.
“The meeting which was held in a very constructive and congenial atmosphere discussed the issue of the transfer of 131 remaining properties to PTCL and the long overdue payment of $800 million to Pakistan,” it read.
There were no official words on why the talks remained unsuccessful. Etisalat did not commit anything concrete to the government, as evident from the official handout.
“Ahmad AK Juffar informed the finance minister that he would take up the issue with the board of directors of Etisalat for an early resolution of the matter,” it stated.
Dar, meanwhile, reiterated the government was committed to transfering all remaining properties to PTCL and urged the Etisalat delegation to settle the dispute as early as possible.
Pakistan has counted $800 million as part of its external inflows for the current fiscal year and any delay will affect the already precarious level of the country’s foreign exchange reserves.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 19th, 2013.
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Etisalat earn 200 million dollar from Ptcl every year without any investment.Govt should kick out Etisalat like India.
Etisalat owns only 26 percent of PTCL. Even if these properties are transferred to them, 74 percent would still belong to government. So do it and settle the issue.
@zahid khan: The government made an agreement with Etisalat to sell them PTCL shares. As part of the agreement PTCL properties were to be handed over to PTCL but that was not done. If one side does not do what is in the agreement how can you blame the other side for holding back payment? I am sure Etisalat will happily pay the $800 million if the properties are handed over. It would be foolish of them to refuse.
And FYI KESC management is not inept. Far from it. KESC is much improved from the time it was under government control. Power cuts have been vastly reduced in areas where people pay bills and KESC is actually profitable. This approach of favouring areas with honest consumers has proven so successful that the IMF has asked the govt. to implement it countrywide.
OTOH WAPDA and the other government owned discos are loss making inefficient entities that are a burden on tax payers and electricity consumers alike.
@Fraz: Pakistan does not have the money to nationalize PTCL. And anyway nationalizing PTCL would be a step backwards. Do you want PTCL to turn into another public sector white elephant like railways, PIA, WAPDA etc?
Since 2004 Etisalat has earned huge amount of money from PTCL If they are not willing to pay what stops the government from taking back the management control from them USD.800 million belongs to Pakistan and must be paid.
The benefits of appreciation only belong to PTCL if government was paid in full at the first place. They never paid $800 million to own the properties at the first place. If properties are worth more then why government is begging Etisalat to pay the money? They can easily go ahead and sell them for more. It makes no sense. I just think our "brothers" in Dubai are screwing us as usual. Just like creating havoc in Karachi to promote Dubai, cricket ban on Pakistan so Pak plays in Dubai, inapt KESC management and draining money from Pakistan to be invested in Dubai real estate etc etc etc. We need to wake up and put Pakistan first.
Problem is that the properties in question are now worth well over $800 million. They are valued in the billions of dollars now. So the government does not want to "loose out" by transferring them over. The level of greed is astonishing! The benefits of the appreciation belong to PTCL not the government.
There is a vast difference between Rs. 800 million and $800 million. I hope the author of this article was aware of that when writing this.