ISLAMABAD: Cash-strapped Pakistan’s federal cabinet has approved the ordinance, which has made a provision to sell the country’s assets abroad to other countries by going beyond all due process and regulatory scrutiny. The ordinance makes the federal cabinet so powerful that it can also issue binding instructions to provinces to cede any land and to transact with a foreign state.
This information was given in the media reports on Saturday. The government has taken this decision to avoid the danger of bankruptcy in the country. According to The Express Tribune newspaper, the Intergovernmental Commercial Transfer Ordinance 2022 was approved by the federal cabinet on Thursday. According to the ordinance, the decisions of the cabinet committee can neither be challenged in courts nor can any investigative agency investigate the deals that will be done with foreign governments through this ordinance.
Why did Pakistan need to bring an ordinance… what are the provisions?
According to The Express Tribune newspaper, a provision has been made in the ordinance that the court will not hear the petition filed against the sale of property or stake by the government to other countries. The decision has been taken to sell a stake in oil and gas companies and the state-owned power company to the United Arab Emirates for $2 to 2.5 billion, to avoid the risk of bankruptcy.
President Arif Alvi has not signed the ordinance yet
The Express Tribune newspaper reported that President Arif Alvi has not yet signed this ordinance. According to the news, the United Arab Emirates had refused to deposit cash in Pakistan’s banks in the month of May, as it could not repay the earlier loan. Instead, the UAE had asked Pakistan to open its companies for investment.
Is there an ordinance for deals with foreign countries to raise funds immediately?
Pakistan’s Finance Minister Mifta Ismail said this week that it usually takes 471 days to complete a privatization transaction. He had said that the government will have to end the delay in deals with foreign countries to raise funds immediately. The report said that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has placed a condition that Pakistan’s case cannot be taken to the board unless it seeks to bridge the funding gap from friendly countries with US$4 billion. Doesn’t order dollars.
Pakistan recently inked an employee-level agreement with the IMF for the payment of USD 1.17 billion under the bailout package. The Pakistani rupee has depreciated 8.3 percent of its value this week, the highest since November 1998. This shows the seriousness of the challenges facing the government of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. However, sources said this immediate fundraising mechanism could be controversial in the absence of transparency and low stock prices due to the collapse of the Pakistan Stock Exchange.
