Blue World City has made the decision to challenge the postponement of the process citing various grounds including the bidding policy to disqualify the bidders that do not submit all the required documents within the stipulated time. Among the six companies, Blue World City was the only company that submitted all the required documents on time.
According to Blue World City, it fulfilled all the necessary terms and conditions for financial bidding for the privatization of PIA, while other pre-qualified bidders did not complete the process by the due date. Meanwhile, the Privatization Commission has extended the bidding date from September 25 to October 25 without giving any clear reason.
Sources said the extension was made to benefit the other five bidders, as they could not fulfill all the bidding conditions.
Blue World City Chairman Saad Nazir said that his company was the only one to submit complete documents to the Privatization Commission on time. He said that he submitted all the documents as per the Commission’s Terms of Reference (TORs) and also signed the privatization agreement. However, Blue World City was prevented from depositing the money and the date was extended, he maintained.
According to Blue World Aviation Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Major (retd) Maisam Raza, Blue World City was the only company that fulfilled all the conditions on time in the privatization process that started in April. He was of the view that that the decision aimed to benefit the other bidders.
Previously, the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Privatisation had disclosed that the privatisation process was extended to October 1. Now, the process has again been postponed till October 25.
earlier this week, Usman Bajwa, secretary of the Privatisation Commission, informed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Privatisation that the final bid documents were shared with six pre-qualified bidders including: (1) a consortium led by Blue World City; (2) Fly Jinnah Limited; (3) Air Blue Limited; (4) Arif Habib Corporation Limited; (5) a consortium led by YB Holdings (Private) Limited; and (6) a consortium led by Pak Ethanol.
It is pertinent to mention that the national flag carrier is being privatised when there has been a European Union’s ban on PIA’s flights to Europe. This is one of the airline’s most profitable routes, historically.
Additionally, a whopping Rs35 billion has been earmarked for PIA s 7,360 current employees, with pensions for the company’s 16,000 retired workers to be covered by the government, as per the sources.
