Govt to sell 2.5% of OGDCL shares to public, Senate told

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to sell 2.5 percent of the shares in the Oil and Gas Development Corporation Limited (OGDCL) to the general public in the stock market next month and sell its 51 percent shares to a strategic investor with management control, Federal Privatisation Minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Sheikh told the senate during the question hour on Friday.

He said the government had planned to privatise OGDCL completely by the end of 2003 or in early 2004.

To a question by Senator Dilawar Abbas, he said a final decision to sell 2.5 percent of OGDCL shares would be taken by a Cabinet committee on Saturday. He said the government also wanted to privatise 3.2 percent of the National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) shares next month. “Smaller shares will be sold to keep a balance between the privatisation of OGDCL, PIA and NBP,” he said.

Answering a question from Senator Dilawar Abbas, he said pre-privatisation restructuring would have to be carried out for the complete privatisation of the Pakistan Telecommunications Company Limited (PTCL). “PTCL has been increasingly privatised for the last ten years and the present government has engaged three parties for its complete privatisation,” he said.

To a question from Sajid Mir, the minister in charge of the Establishment Division, Raza Hayat Hiraj told the house that a total of 1,027 posts were filled from October 1999 to October 2002 by postings and transfers of serving and retired military officers on induction, secondment and re-employment basis. He said 31 officials between grade-19 and 21 were working as officers on special duty (OSD) for technical and administrative reasons, including corruption charges. He said five OSDs were in grade-19, twenty in grade-20 and eight in grade-21.

The minister said there was no maximum or minimum period to be OSDs and there were no specified duties for OSDs. Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz told the house that the total outstanding medium and long-term foreign debt was $30.42 billion on March 30, 2003. —Shaukat Piracha

Home | National