The Senate Standing Committee on Privatization on Tuesday has expressed its annoyance over the continuous absence of the Chairman Capital Development Authority (CDA) in the meeting of the Committee. The Committee which met here with Senator Shammim Afridi in the Chair, decided to move a privilege motion in the Senate against Chairman CDA for his absence in the meeting despite repeated instructions.
The Committee also decided to bring the matter into the notice of Chairman Senate, besides apprising him about the impediments faced in the proceedings of meeting. Speaking on the occasion, Senator Anwar ul Haq Kakar said that nobody is above the law and it was the privilege of the Committee to call the public servant any time and held him answerable. He said that the Chairman CDA was also not present in last meeting of the Committee and due to his absence, the Committee was unable to get appropriate replies regarding the matters pertaining to civic agency.
Meanwhile, Chairman of the Committee Senator Shammim Afridi said that the Privatization Commission has hired 18 consultants for the divestment of state owned enterprises, adding that transaction of such loss making entities were not completed yet. The Privatization Commission was directed to submit details of financial expenses of all such consultants before the next meeting of the Committee, he expressed. While briefing the Committee, Secretary Privatization Commission said that the progress report of the Commission was in progress and during last year, about 06 properties were privatized. He told the meeting that the privatization process was initiated in 1991 and so far 178 entities were privatized and gained an amount of Rs649 billion.
Senior officials of the Commission also informed the meeting that the Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) in January, 2021 had approved privatization of Lahore Electricity Supply Company (LESCO), adding that a working group was established in order to prepare a model for the privatize the power distribution companies.
He said that these working groups had prepared conception models for 08 distribution companies, besides suggesting the management models for for QESCO and TESCO. It was informed that after the change of the government, the matter was submitted before the new government, and on June 24, 2022 the issue was put before the CCOP. Besides, he said that Power Division was negotiating with provincial governments regarding the privatization of power distributions companies.
The meeting was attend by the Senators, Saeed Ahmad Hashmi, Anwar ul Haq Kakar, Rana Mahmood ul Hassain and Syed Muhamad Sabir Shah. Secretary Privatization Commission along with senior officials also attended the meeting.
