Govt to set up privatisation appellate tribunal

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has decided to establish a privatisation appellate tribunal. The three-member tribunal will be headed by a retired judge of the Supreme Court.

Their salary and allowances will also be at par with that of a Supreme Court judge. The tribunal will consist of a judicial and a technical member. Their pay and allowances shall be equivalent to the MP1 scale. The three shall be appointed for a period of three years. This period can be extended once.

The qualification for a judicial member is to be a retired district and sessions judge or an advocate with at least ten years of active service in the High Court. Qualification of the technical member is master’s or equivalent professional degree in finance, law, accountancy, insurance, accountancy, investment management, industry, banking or finance and minimum 15 years of professional experience. The tribunal will be established under the Amended Privatisation Ordinance 2023. After the approval of the federal cabinet and the president, the Ministry of Law and Justice has issued a statutory gazette notification of the Privatisation Amendment Ordinance. All civil and criminal matters related to privatisation will be heard in the tribunal. Apart from this, no court will hear the cases. An appeal against the decision of the tribunal can be filed in the Supreme Court within 60 days under the amended ordinance. The

establishment of the tribunal will speed up the process of privatisation of state-owned enterprises and eliminate hurdles to privatisation due to litigation.