Musharraf approves plan for sale of power firm

Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf has approved a proposal to put the Karachi Electric Supply Corp (KESC) up for sale if the ongoing arrangements for repayment of its loans do not work, official sources told Gulf News.

Musharraf's approval came after a lengthy discussion on the present status of the corporation, in a recent meeting, where the governor of the State Bank of Pakistan and several key aides to Musharraf expressed their views on the KESC issue.

Informed sources said the meeting discussed two options after debating the KESC problem, one of which was to clear loans that were due to the corporation while the other was to put it up for sale. The chief executive favoured the second option after a briefing by the central bank governor.

KESC has withheld payments to different institutions as it is facing huge debts. It has to clear outstanding dues of Rs9 billion to the PSO alone. The presentation on the issue indicated that there was apparently no chance of any immediate breakthrough and it would be better if it was offered for sale.

Gulf News learnt that the centrla bank governor explained to the chief executive, his cabinet colleagues and other experts seized with the matter that he had already discussed a proposal under which the loans due to the corporation could be cleared. But he noted: "It would be wiser to sell it than clear its loans and retain it."

It emerged that one of the proposals to solve KESC's problems, was to arrange funds from different banks to clear outstandingloans.  These loans were, however, to be returned to banks only after getting loan money from an international agency.