Pakistan’s Minister for Privatization, Waqar Ahmed Khan, has told the country’s National Assembly that the government’s sale of a 26% stake in PTCL to Etisalat was “not transparent.”
Khan said the deal, inked in 2006 and now being investigated by a House special committee, was done in “violation of rules and procedures,” reported local daily Dawn.
Etisalat is refusing to pay a final $800 million owed on the deal to the government, claiming a promised transfer of property to PTCL has failed take place.
Nearly 3,500 private properties under government litigation were supposed to be transferred to Etisalat under the deal, said Business Recorder.
Etisalat chairman Mohammed Omran told Bloomberg that under the terms of the transaction, Etisalat was “entitled to withhold payments until the property titles were transferred to PTCL.”