ISLAMABAD: The Federal government has approved the appointment of “blue-eyed” Advisor to PM Ahad Khan Cheema as the Land Utilization Expert in PTCL Board.
Sources, privy to the development, informed that the Federal Cabinet has approved the inclusion of PM’s Adviser Ahad Khan Cheema in the PTCL Board as a land utilization expert for three years through the circulation of a summary put up by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecom.
It is to be noted that each member of PTCL board, comprising nine members including the four from Pakistan i.e Secretary Finance, Secretary IT&T, Secretary privatization and ED NITB, is entitled to a 5,000 dollar participation fee for one meeting apart from business class airline ticket and hotel accommodation. The PTCL board conducts at least six meetings in a year and the board also holds one meeting in any foreign country such as UAE once a year.
The sources said that the Federal Cabinet has terminated membership of the Executive Director National Information Technology Board and now Advisor to PM Ahad cheema as board member will work to retrieve the outstanding sale proceeds of PTCL amounting to $800 million from Etisalat International.
It is important to mention here that Etisalat has been holding back $800 million out of $2.6 billion bid proceeds of majority stakes in PTCL for almost 16 years now on the premise that Pakistan did not transfer titles of all the properties owned by the privatized entity.
Reportedly, the PTCL’s asset management department had mentioned 3,384 properties while originally owning only 3,248 properties in the privatization agreement finalized in 2006.
Etisalat had made upfront payments of $1.4 billion in a couple of installments but then stopped the remaining amount of $800 million on the premise of non-transfer of all properties in the name of PTCL.
Etisalat claimed that the number of non-doable properties was not 33 but 363 based on the list provided by the asset management department of PTCL as part of the sale-purchase agreement.
The government thinks that there should be a land utilization and management expert in the PTCL board who can resolve the issue of properties and Ahad Khan Cheema can perform this work, the sources added.
