ISLAMABAD:
What is common between the UAE's Bestway Group, which last week
purchased 51 per cent of Pakistan's leading United Bank, the Hariri
Group of Lebanon which is bidding for the multi-billion dollar Pakistan
Telecom and the failed $10 billion Saudi bid for the larger Habib
Bank of Pakistan and other projects.
The
common factor is a person, Pakistan's Finance Minister Shaukat Aziz,
who claims he is on a Sabbatical from the Citibank and after he
is done with Pakistan, may return to 
his
company and his clients.
These
three Middle Eastern business groups are his find, possibly future
clients for Citibank, if not existing ones. Aziz has been trying
to give huge favours to these groups and bring them to Pakistan,
on the solid assurance that as Finance Minister he would see to
it that they get what he would promise.
Last
week he delivered to the UAE Group the most vibrant Pakistani bank,
United Bank or UBL at a price everyone envied. He maneuvered through
the bureaucratic maze with such skill that rival bidders were left
in a daze with previous highest bidder opting to boycott the final
bidding process. Out of the blue, at the 11th hour, the UAE group
emerged and conquered.
Without
Aziz's quiet intervention, the UAE Sheikhs would never have got
the UBL deal. It was a favour par excellence because the winning
group was actually a huge defaulter of the bank it had just purchased.
The
huge UBL loan of US $300 million, given in the early 70s to the
same group of Sheikhs, had snowballed into billions and was written
off by Aziz just months ago, despite a letter written by President
Musharraf to the UAE President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahiyan
to ask his Royal Prince to pay it back. View
General Musharraf's Letter It never was. The bank losses were
made up by tax payers' money and then the group was allowed to bid,
and win, the bank, through jugglery of rules and an artistic display
of edging out the rivals, while maintaining a deceptive aura of
transparency. View Minutes where write off
was approved Page1 | Page2 | Page3
| Page4
Before
he delivered the UBL to the UAE Sheikhs, Aziz just barely missed
serving his Saudi friends, led by Prince Sultan bin Turki bin Abdul
Aziz, who made a fantastic paper bid of almost $10 billion to buy
Pakistan's leading Habib Bank, the Islamabad New City Project, an
oil refinery and a 5-star hotel before the fateful day of September
11.
Aziz
had begun secret negotiations with the Saudi Group and had even
persuaded President Musharraf to invite the Prince to Pakistan.
The deal was cooking fast and the Saudis had allocated some $300
million for immediate investment in Pakistan but an ex-ISI chief,
Pakistan's Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Lt. General Asad Durrani,
intervened, and the Aziz scheme was foiled. View
SA Tribune's earlier Story
Aziz
had almost succeeded. The Saudis had been given assurances. Secret
negotiations on these projects were going on while publicly the
Government had to privatize them through a process of transparent
bidding. View
Saudi letter
His
third major deal, the privatization of Pakistan Telecom (PTCL) is
yet to come but his moves have already been marked, and once again,
by another ex-ISI chief, who is trying to neutralize him.
The
Hariri Group of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri is the main
contender for PTCL and the Prime Minister has visited Pakistan several
times to ensure that his interests in PTCL are protected. General
Musharraf was also made to visit Lebanon, just to reassure the Hariris
on persuasion of Aziz.
The
bid price of PTCL is so high there are not many bidders but Hariris
have been allowed in the contest although they just barely qualify
to meet the requirement of running a larger telecom company than
PTCL itself.
But
Aziz may not have much time to do to PTCL what he has done to UBL.
A change of government is on the cards and it is not certain how
Aziz may fit into an elected government although he has been pushing
his name in the media as a possible prime minister nominee of General
Musharraf.
If
General Musharraf nominates him as the next PM, the grant of PTCL
to the Hariris of Lebanon would be a done deal. But if Musharraf
fails to keep Aziz in the power game after the October elections,
the future of the deal may be uncertain.
The
reason is that major players like the ex-ISI Chief and Railways
Minister Lt. General (Retd) 
Javed
Ashraf Qazi have moved in with their proposals to block the Aziz
games. PTCL promises big bucks for any one who can deliver the deal
and Qazi had shown overt keenness in similar mega buck deals recently,
topping it with a Rs 25 billion Golf Course to be built near Lahore
by Malaysian companies. Qazi refused to give details of the Golf
Course calling it "a matter of national security".
Qazi
recently tried his best to pressure the PTCL to start granting licenses
to private phone companies, although PTCL has a monopoly until Jan
2003. Qazi wanted Railways to grant the license by entering into
a partnership with a foreigncompany. Aziz successfully thwarted
the Qazi move and held on to his guns. View
Cabinet Summary Page1 | Page2
| Page3
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