In the Cabinet Committee on Inter-Government Commercial Transactions, Headed by the Ishaq Dar, the Federal Minister for Finance in Islamabad on Monday, it was decided to constitute a committee to negotiate agreement between the Karachi Port Trust (KPT) and the UAE government to finalize a deal for handing over the Karachi port terminals.
The committee has been authorized to finalize the draft operation, maintenance, investment and development agreement under the government-to-government agreements with a nominated agency of United Arab Emirates for handing over the Karachi port terminals.
The Negotiation committee would be headed by the Minister for Maritime Affairs, Faisal Sabzwari. The members will be additional secretaries of Finance and Foreign Affairs, the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Jahanzeb Khan, the Chairman of the Karachi Port Trust and the General Manager of KPT.
The Abu Dhabi Ports which is a subsidiary to the Abu Dhabi Group is the choice of the government of Pakistan. Abu Dhabi Ports (ADP) owns or operates ten ports and terminals in UAE.
Earlier, the Pakistan International Containers terminals (PICT) had the administrative control of KPT. The PICT is the subsidiary of ICTSI Mauritius Limited with its parent company being International Container Terminal Service Incorporated which in incorporated in Philippines.
The administrative control of KPT was given to the International Containers Terminals (PICT) under an agreement in June 2002 for the period of 21 years. The agreement ended last Saturday.
Initially, it was planned that the Port Terminals would be run by KPT but the cabinet committee was informed that Karachi Port Trust does not have the capacity to do so. Now the operational responsibilities have been planned to be given to ADP.
The Cabinet Committee was informed that the Abu Dhabi Ports which is owned by the government of UAE has shown interest on running the Containers Terminals. ??