Ministry to discuss sukuk snags

KARACHI: The Finance Ministry’s top official will hold a meeting with stakeholders on Thursday (today) to remove obstacles in the issuance of Rs200 billion worth Pakistan Energy Sukuk-II, sources said.

The finance secretary is set to chair a meeting to discuss the second Energy Sukuk (Islamic bond) floatation, amid settlement of the power sector circular debt, according to a Finance Division circular seen by The News.

The officials of the State Bank of Pakistan and the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, and the heads of Meezan Bank Limited (MBL), Bank Alfalah Limited, and Dubai Islamic Bank Pakistan Limited are invited by the Finance Ministry to attend the meeting.

“The government is all geared up for this sukuk however certain conditions set by the international donor agencies (sovereign guarantee) are hindering its issuance. We are hopeful that this matter will be resolved shortly as things have started to move forward,” a source said.

Under the IMF agreement, Pakistan cannot extend sovereign guarantees, and has been restricted to be within the specific limit of debt to government ratio.

“The energy and finance ministries and the central bank are working on the measures to facilitate the issuance,” the source added. “We hope that the SBP would come up with a solution to fix the sovereign guarantees issue in Thursday’s meeting.”