ISLAMABAD: The Aviation Division has initiated a process to get rid of legal obstacles in the way of outsourcing the major airports of the country, including Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad and Multan.
According to sources, the Aviation Division has already sent a number of bills to the Law Division for processing. The move comes in an apparent bid to pave the path for outsourcing major airports of the country to foreign companies. The three bills submitted to the law division are the Civil Aviation Bill 2020, the Civil Aviation Authority Ordinance (Amendment) Bill 2020, and the Pakistan Airport Authority Bill 2020.
The bills were sent for processing and ratification on August 15th this year. Before this, the aviation division had also made a move to enact the segregation of the Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA). This would be done by establishing two separate authorities, namely the existing PCAA with a diminished role and a new authority by the name of the Pakistan Airport Authority (PAA). This segregation move is currently in progress on fast track basis.
Sources further added that the aviation division will submit a summary containing Civil Aviation Bill 2020 and Civil Aviation Authority Ordinance (Amendment) Bill 2020 to the Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases (CCLC) within one week from the date of receipt of vetting by the law division. They said that the PCAA Board has already granted in principle approval for amendment in CAA Service Regulations while formal approval in this regard will be made on 30th September 2020.
It has also been revealed that detailed work related to functional separation of PCAA has already been completed, and formal approval from the CAA Board will also be made by 30th September 2020. Process of outsourcing of the major airports will be carried out in the two phases, said sources.
According to documents, engagement of the audit firm to work out the most efficient structure for corporatization and to identify best options/models for outsourcing will be done in Phase-I and hiring a financial advisor through Privatization Commission for the transaction in Phase-II.
And, it is being proposed that instead of the earlier cabinet committee, a committee under Minister for Aviation may be constituted with Advisor to PM on Institutional Reforms, Chairman Board of Investment (BOI) and Secretary Aviation Division as members for Phase-I while timeline specified in the committee report is 04 months.
The Aviation Division suggested that since the tasks were already in advance stages of implementation, the committee formed by the cabinet under Advisor to the PM on Commerce may be discontinued. However, for the task relating to the engagement of an audit firm to work on the most efficient structure for the Pakistan Airports Authority and for corporatization, it was proposed that a committee under Minister for Aviation may be constituted with Advisor to PM on Institutional Reforms, Chairman BOI and Secretary Aviation as member, said documents.
The sources said that the federal government has been paving the path to outsource major airports of the country to foreign companies and a committee led by Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood has submitted a report to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan in this regard.
They said that the cabinet committee headed by Razak Dawood, in a report titled “Report on Outsourcing of Major Airports of Pakistan,” has recommended the establishment of two separate authorities namely Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority (PCAA) and Pakistan Airports Authority (PAA). They said PCAA would be entrusted with regulatory functions and PAA would look after the commercial aspects of the airports while the functional separation of the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) would be performed after obtaining approval from the CAA board. The committee also recommended that airports should not be outsourced to foreign nationals originating from countries like India or Israel.
According to documents available with Pakistan Today, a committee comprising of adviser to prime minister on commerce and investment, minister for aviation, adviser to prime minister on overseas Pakistanis and human resource development, adviser to the prime minister on parliamentary affairs, Board of Investment chairman and the Aviation Division secretary was constituted to evaluate various options for outsourcing major airports of the country.
This committee has so far convened six meetings including meetings with the Ministry of Defence and other stakeholders and has submitted a report of its findings to the prime minister.
As per documents, the Civil Aviation Ordinance, 1960 will be replaced with the new Civil Aviation Bill, 2020 while the Civil Aviation Authority Ordinance, 1982 will be amended to exclude the function of airport services and air navigation services.
Similarly, after approval of the proposal for the establishment of PAA, the PAA Bill 2020 will be prepared for improving the services efficiency of the airports. This bill will have enabling provisions for incorporation of subsidiaries under the Companies Act, 2017. Furthermore, airports and air navigation assets will be transferred from the existing authority to the newly established authority by law.
Sources further said that the PM has been informed regarding Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision pertaining to outsourcing of airports in which the court had limited the scope of outsourcing of airports to provision of airport services like car parking. They further said that the Supreme Court in a decision dated February 19. 2020 had also directed that no land around the Jinnah International Airport, Karachi will be used for any commercial exploitation.
Sources said that the federal government has advised the Aviation Division to clear the reservation of courts and inform them that airports will be outsourced under international standards. The prime minister also directed that the matter should be presented before the law committee of the cabinet.
kindly regularize the employees of CA Club.Management take his enough effort to empower his employees and also support them. DGCAA is requested to kindly regularize the payscale of CA Club employees as per scale of CAA.