Centre may take back PTDC motels, resorts from provinces.

ISLAMABAD -- The federal government is considering taking back precious motels of Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) from provinces as they were given to provincial governments without meeting the laid-own procedure, a government source told Dawn on Sunday.

The source said that a recently-formed Special Committee on Sacked Employees, headed by Speaker of National Assembly Raja Parvaiz Ashraf, had been given the mandate by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to decide the fate of the motels and sacked employees of PTDC, who have been waiting for their retirement dues for the last several years.

The former government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had handed over 19 most valued motels and resorts of the PTDC to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government in March last year. Handing over all motels of the corporation in Punjab to the provincial government was also under consideration.

A member of the committee, who did not want to be named, said it had come to the notice of the committee that a few years ago the National Industrial Relations Commission (NIRC) had barred the federal government from handing over the PTDC's assets to provinces as employees of the corporation had informed the court that the federal government was bent upon illegally handing over these resorts and motels of the corporation to provinces free of cost.

NA speaker-led special committee on sacked employees mandated by PM to decide issue

The committee reached a conclusion that assets of the PTDC could be handed over to the provinces only under the Companies Act, 1984, which required hiring of a liquidator to evaluate the market price of all these motels and resorts before handing them over to provinces.

The PTDC has a total of 39 motels and resorts, mostly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Under the 18th amendment the ministry of tourism has been devolved to provinces.

It came into the notice of the...