PTCL’s Shady Investment Pitch Raises Eyebrows
By Slaman Khan
Islamabad: Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) has submitted a dubious investment plan, dubbed the PTCL shady investment, to the regulator, a precondition to allow PTCL and Telecom merger in Pakistan.
Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) has called a hearing on Wednesday to seek views of PTCL team over investment plan.PTCL refuses to pay Rs 41 billion to pensioners
Amid controversies of losses piling up and shut up calls to PTCL officials by NA panel, PTCL is now pushing the government to allow PTCL-Telenor merger.
PTCL is currently facing higher losses of Ufone that is also eating up profits of PTCL entity, a joint entity of government of Pakistan and UAE state owned Etisalat.
PTCL is currently facing lot of controversies. Etisalat has been chronic defaulter of Pakistan which did not pay $800 million dollar dues to Pakistan against land.
Amid this controversy, PTCL has started selling prime land worth billions of rupees despite the dispute between government of Pakistan and Etisalat still exists.
The PTCL officials were snubbed by national assembly standing committee on IT whose claims were meant ‘ no one can interfere in the PTCL affairs’.
Following this, NA panel on IT had snubbed PTCL officials and decided to initiate action against the management of PTCL over such foolish claims and refusal to submit details relating to selling prime land in Karachi.
It is also alarming that parliamentary panel was discussing issue of PTCL property and meanwhile the management of PTCL had started process of selling property, ignoring the warnings of parliamentary body.
Amid these issues, the cross subsidizing the Ufone by PTCL had also become an issue of concenrs for the government.
All other telecom operators were making money but Ufone was losing profits despite it had high spectrum and wide infrastructure network.
It has alarmed the government and is also seeking answers from PTCL management in this regard.
According to the biannual performance report (July-December FY25) released by the Central Monitoring Unit (CMU) of the Ministry of Finance, the ministry had termed the PTCL loser which losses mount to Rs7.2 billion during the period. Its losses piled up to Rs43.6 billion.
According to report, PTCL has also moved up the ranking of loss-making SOEs from 10th position to 7th place in the current fiscal year during the period under review.
The finance ministry further warned the proposed acquisition of Telenor Pakistan by PTCL could further dip the Group’s finances, if not carefully managed.
The ministry warned the move could also result in hindering PTCL’s digital transformation goals and limit its ability to invest in core growth areas over the coming years. It further highlighted PTCL’s outstanding pension liabilities amount to Rs42.84 billion.
PTCL had posted a net profit of Rs20.78 billion in 2005-06 at time when its management control was given to UAE-based telecom firm Etisalat.
UAE based firm had acquired a 26pc stake. The government of Pakistan retains a 62 percent shareholding in PTCL whereas the remaining 12 percent shares were held by public investors through the stock market.
