Panel formed as PTI govt mulls outsourcing major airports

News Desk

ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet has constituted a committee to prepare a legal framework by June 30 for outsourcing the country’s major airports to bring them on par with international standards, said Minister for Information and Broadcasting Senator Shibli Faraz.

Briefing the media about a raft of decisions made in a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Faraz said the government was searching for an international firm that has experience in operating and managing airports.

The objective of the move is to bring Pakistan’s airports up to international standards with facilities that are available at major airports in developed countries, the minister added. He revealed that the cabinet was informed about some firms having shown interest already. “A legal framework will be devised before the tendering process starts,” he said.

The committee, headed by Aviation Minister Ghulam Sarwar Khan and comprising Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Overseas Pakistanis Zulfi Bukhari, Adviser to the PM on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan, Adviser to the PM on Commerce, Trade and Industry Abdul Razzak Dawood and the Board of Investment (BoI) chairperson as members, will fast-track the process.

Responding to a question, the minister said the report of the inquiry commission on the sugar scandal would be released “very soon”, according to Radio Pakistan. In other moves, the cabinet discussed the issue of provincial water share and decided to install the latest telemetry system to ensure transparency in water distribution. The minister said in the past some “vested interests” had been creating hurdles in the installation of the system.

The cabinet, he said, noted that the performance of the members of Indus River System Authority (IRSA) from Sindh, Punjab and the federal capital was “not up to the mark”, and decided to hold an inquiry against them. If they are found guilty, they will be replaced with “efficient and honest” people who will ensure the running of the telemetry system transparently. The cabinet also approved the decisions of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) meeting of May 13 allowing mobile phone manufacturing in the country and a 50 per cent federal subsidy on wheat procurement for Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Twenty-seven ministries submitted reports regarding illegal recruitments in government departments, Faraz said. “Some 638 illegally appointed people are working in different government departments,” he added. The ministries have been given a week’s time to submit their data on the “illegal” appointments. Action is being taken against the illegal recruitments which were made from August 2016 onwards, he added.

The minister also excoriated opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif for demanding fresh elections “at a time when the nation is fighting the coronavirus pandemic”. The Sharif family, he said, did not like to be in opposition, rather they wanted to loot and plunder the national wealth while being in power.

The elections won by them were fair while the one in which they lost were bogus for them. The people of Pakistan, he said, had rejected the corrupt elements in the general election 2018 and they could no more be fooled by such slogans.