In a concise statement submitted before the Supreme Court on Saturday, the federal government has said that if the privatisation of 10% shares of the Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) was not completed, Pakistan would be exposed to ‘great financial loss’.
The government requested the top court to dismiss the petition of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government against the privatisation of OGDCL. “It would be an irretrievable loss which would affect future prospects of foreign investments,” says the statement by Additional Attorney General Waqar Rana. A copy of the statement is available with The Express Tribune.
The top court has summoned K-P government’s records from the Peshawar High Court regarding the privatisation of 10 per cent shares of the OGDCL and hinted at disposing of the case on Monday (October 20).
The federal government has alleged that the K-P government is attempting to create the impression of a national economic crisis, which simply doesn’t exist.
Since the PHC passed the restraining order, the value of OGDCL’s share has depreciated by about Rs20, it added. “If this uncertainty continues there is great likelihood that the share value will further depreciate. The loss already suffered on this account runs into 100s of millions of rupees.”
The statement says that the federal government bears the considerable responsibility of framing economic policies for Pakistan and the K-P government fails to appreciate that the debt liability of foreign banks and entities is the federal government’s responsibility. The K-P government has failed to bring on record any documentary proof with regard to alleged irregularities in the transaction, it adds.
The government has stressed that if the transaction is stopped or aborted, then the confidence of foreign investors would be irretrievably lost. “The petitioner [K-P government] has further chosen at the eleventh hour to interfere with the transaction and the economic goodwill connected with it. The whole exercise is tainted with irregularities.”
Published in The Express Tribune, October 19th, 2014.
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@Muslim Leaguer: Just Google how many assets the government is selling so they can raise a little bit of money and then steal it, just like always.
On one hand, they say “It would be an irretrievable loss which would affect future prospects of foreign investments,”
On the other hand, "K-P government is attempting to create the impression of a national economic crisis, which simply doesn't exist."
So if the national economic crisis does not exist, then why panic about a delay in OGDCL's 10% privatization. Since when does the supreme court of Pakistan need to make decision based on how the stock market with be affected?
Pmnl thrives on lies misinformation all energy stks across the globe have suffered recently has price of Crude WTI and BRENT has come of about 25% by blaming PTI for all the ills this government is disgraceful mid cap oilers have dropped an avg 40% yr on yr major ETF X has also depreciated considerably why don't ET publish facts ...Google $XLF the reason being strong $DXY global slowdown has data has been getting bearish geo political situation ie Russia Iran with oversupply by particularly Saudi Arabia that is the reason ET please publish reasons for selloff in a particular sector has not all ppl understand financial instruments but it can be explained in layman terms quite simply....
It appears that K-P provincial government is under the rule of qabzamafia group, which is interested in dancing on the containers but disinterested in development of the province/country.