Aviation pushes for early disposal of Roosevelt Hotel

Aftab Ahmed

Islamabad: The Aviation Division is pushing the government for early disposal of the New York Roosevelt Hotel owned by Pakistan International Airlines-Investment Limited (PIA-IL) and a special meeting of the cabinet committee on Privatisation has been called on Wednesday to finalize a plan.

Sources told Newztodays.com that Aviation Division had raised the issue of early disposal of Roosevelt Hotel before Prime Minister Imran Khan on several occasions. In the meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on the Restructuring of PIACL held on June 8, 2020, it was directed that Aviation Division shall submit present its proposal for JV / long term lease of Roosevelt Hotel before the CCoP for its consideration within one week.

In a summary moved to the cabinet committee on Privatization (CCoP), Aviation Division informed that it was also directed that a special meeting (one-point agenda) of CCoP shall be held, at the earliest, to consider Aviation Division’s proposal.

The Prime Minister, in another meeting held on June 19, 2020, directed that as part of the PIA financial restructuring plan, Aviation Division, in consultation with Privatization Division, shall submit and present its proposal, for revision of the constitution of Taskforce for Privatization of Roosevelt Hotel, owned by PIA-L, before the CCoP to review its decision taken in November 2019 duly ratified vide Cabinet’s decision in December 2019 whereby the said task force was constituted.

Privatization of Roosevelt Hotel Manhattan, New York – Asset owned by Pakistan International Airlines-Investment Limited (PIA-IL). On a summary moved by the Ministry of Privatization on  November 14, 2019, titled “Request for privatization of PIA-Investment Limited (PIA-IL) Owned Assets”, the Cabinet Committee of Privatization constituted a Task Force in November 2019 under the Chairmanship of Minister for Privatization, comprising of SAPM on Overseas Pakistanis Secretary Aviation, Secretary Privatization, Secretary Finance, CEO PIACL, and Legal & Financial Consultants of Roosevelt Hotel for framing Terms of Reference (ToRs) for leasing Roosevelt’s site for setting up a Joint Venture Project.

Aviation Division had pointed out during the meeting of CCoP that they had not been consulted in the matter. The Federal Cabinet in December 2019 ratified this decision of the CCoP with the direction that MD, PIA-L shall be included in the Task Force.

Few meetings of the Task Force were held in the Ministry of Privatization in December 2019. Subsequently, the Ministry of Privatization forwarded a draft summary for CCoP to Aviation Division on 18th December 2019 for inputs/views/comments.

The summary also contained proposed ToRs for the Roosevelt Task Force. After examining the matter, Aviation Division gave its views/comments in December 2019 raising some fundamental questions on the scope assigned to the Financial Advisor (FA), the role of Privatization Commission under the relevant Law, the legal basis for the constitution of Task Force, and the proposed ToRs of the Task Force which are basically the functions of the Privatization Commission.