Government weighs arbitration against Etisalat over $800m PTCL dues

The federal government is weighing international arbitration against Etisalat, the UAE telecom operator now known as e&, to recover roughly $800 million still unpaid from the 2005 sale of a stake in Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited, a joint meeting of two Senate standing committees was told on Tuesday.

The standing committees on information technology and telecommunications and on privatisation met jointly, chaired by Palwasha Khan and Dr Afnanullah Khan. According to a Ministry of Privatisation briefing seen by Dawn and reported by TechJuice, Pakistan sold a 26 percent stake and management control of PTCL to Etisalat International Pakistan in 2005 for $2.59 billion. It has received $1.76 billion. About $800 million is outstanding.

The withheld amount is tied to the transfer of PTCL properties to the new management. The briefing put the transferred share at 99 percent of 3,246 properties, leaving 32 untransferred, and said Etisalat has held back the balance because of those pending cases.

The ministry told the committees that attempts since 2015 to settle post-privatisation disputes, through committees and talks with Etisalat, had not resolved the matter. A committee set up in July 2026 under the prime minister's adviser on privatisation, with representatives of the ministries of IT and law and the Office of the Attorney General, recommended that Pakistan go to international arbitration under the sale purchase agreement. It seeks the $800 million, the opportunity cost since 2008 and damages.

The committee also recommended that the attorney general assess the strength of the case, its prospects of success and its legal implications, and, if the merits allow, obtain approval from the prime minister or the federal government before a Notice of Intent is issued to Etisalat. The Privatisation Division told the senators that a summary has gone to the federal cabinet. The attorney general's office has been directed to implement the cabinet decision under Rule 24 of the Rules of Business, 1973, at the earliest.

The agenda item was taken up in camera. IT Secretary Zarrar Hasham Khan described it as sensitive and asked unauthorised people, including journalists, to leave the room.

Senators on both committees said they had not been given the sale purchase agreement covering the 26 percent stake and management control. One said parliament should be told about the sale of national assets through legislation rather than leave it to bureaucrats and officers.

The PTCL sale has stayed unsettled for two decades, and the dispute now sits with the cabinet while the attorney general tests whether Pakistan can win the money back before an arbitration tribunal.