ISLAMABAD: ‘Sell everything’, that is the message came out of the federal cabinet meeting through an ordinance that will bypass all the procedures and regulatory checks including the six mandatory laws. The shehbaz led government wants to sell the emergency sale of state’s assets to foreign countries in order to save the country from default.
According to a report in Express Tribune, the Centre has also empowered itself to issue binding instructions to the provincial governments for land acquisition through the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Ordinance 2022.
The ordinance also has barred the courts of the country not to entertain any petition against the sale of assets and shares of the government companies to foreign countries, as per the ordinance.
The federal cabinet had approved the ordinance on Thursday to sell stakes of oil and gas companies and government-owned power plants to the UAE to raise $2 billion to $2.5 billion to avoid the looming default.
Earlier, the UAE had in May refused to give cash deposits due to Islamabad’s inability to return previous loans and instead asked to open its companies for investment.
It’s worth mentioning that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has placed a condition that Pakistan’s case could not be taken to the board until it arranged $4 billion from friendly countries to bridge the financing gap.
The ordinance has raised many transparency concerns, including the determination of the prices of the shares of the Mari Gas Company, Oil Gas Development Company Limited and Pakistan Petroleum Limited amid their low market price compared with their book values.
The ordinance will provide for a mechanism to carry out a commercial transaction under an inter-governmental framework agreement to promote, attract and encourage foreign states to have economic and business relations with Pakistan, according to the documents.
President Arif Alvi has not signed the ordinance yet.
