ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Commerce on Tuesday took serious note of the investments made by National Insurance Company Limited (NICL) in Dubai and Lahore that caused billions of rupees losses to the company.
The standing committee, which met in the Parliament House under the chairmanship of Ilyas Bilour, also formed two sub-committees to investigate the faulty investments of the NICL.
Haroon Khan, the member of the standing committee, said that the procedures adopted by the commerce ministry in making appointment of the NICL chairman were also doubtful.
“The post was not even advertised and the NICL chairman has been authorised to manage the public investment of over Rs16 billion,” Mr Haroon lamented and added that appointments were being made on personal liking and disliking.
The standing committee severely criticised the NICL decision of making investment in Liberty House DIFC in Dubai.
Ishaq Dar questioned that at a time when all the investors were trying to sell their properties and trying to save their investment in Dubai why the NICL made investment in the real estate sector there.
Mr Dar also inquired if the NICL was in possession of foreign exchange too and why the money was not invested in Pakistan.
The standing committee members asked the secretary commerce for reasons why NICL purchased open land at more than market price in Lahore. The NICL building site at Airport Ring Road had been purchased at Rs1.17 billion or Rs53 million per kanal.
The NICL authorities informed the committee that this deal was finalised after careful evaluation of the land and it was purchased from the owner named Habib Ullah Waraich.
Some members of the committee said that the deal cost a loss to Rs800 million to the company as higher price had been paid to the owner.
The committee also took up the issue of Trade Organisations Ordinance and decided to seek views from all the chambers of commerce on the licences issue.
The committee was briefed by Secretary Commerce Zafar Mehmood and NICL Chairman M Hayat Niazi.
The committee members also criticised the government for distributing federal government shares amounting to Rs6 billion under the Benazir Employees Stock Option Scheme (BESOS) despite the fact that the country was facing serious financial crises.
The government was distributing its shares free of cost in 80 public sector enterprises to the employees of those entities.
They said that the decision came at a time when the country was being financially managed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
“Is there a need to distribute Rs6 billion worth of shares free of cost,” asked Haroon Akhtar.
Mr Dar said that he would take up this issue at the floor of the Senate.
Source Dawn News
No comments:
Post a Comment