ISLAMABAD: Moving at a break-neck speed, the government on Tuesday requested the federal cabinet to approve a draft framework agreement with UAE’s Abu Dhabi Ports (ADP) on a G2G basis for the transfer of port assets.

The Cabinet Committee on Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions (CCoIGCT) led by Finance Minister met again within 24 hours after its second meeting in a week and “recommended the draft Framework Agreement to the Federal Cabinet for approval”, an official statement said.

The CCoIGCT on Monday constituted a four-member inter-ministerial ‘Framework Agreement Committee’ to negotiate the draft agreement between the governments of the UAE and Pakistan, under the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transaction Act 2022, to further strengthen the relations between the two countries in the maritime sector, starting initially with Container Terminal from Karachi Port Trust (KPT).

The framework agreement committee led by Secretary Law and Justice Raja Naeem Akbar and comprising Secretary Ministry of Maritime Affairs (MoMA) Ghufran Memon and one additional secretary each of the ministries of finance and foreign affairs, met early in the morning on Tuesday.

The meeting was also attended from the UAE side by Abu Dhabi Ports (ADP) chief executive Abdul Aziz AlBalooshi, General Manager Legal Saboor Karamat and Mustafa Ahmed, adviser to Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum who is an influential member of the ruling family and the chairman of Emirates Airlines, Dubai Aviation City, Dubai World and fly Dubai among others.

The meeting discussed clause by clause the draft framework agreement received earlier in the morning and agreed on the terms of the agreement. It was immediately taken to the waiting Dar-led CCoIGCT “for consideration and recommendation for the federal cabinet for granting approval”.

Under the terms of the draft agreement, the objective is to “create favourable conditions for the operations, maintenance, upgradation, investment, development and advancement of the Container Terminal at Berths 6 to 9, East Wharf at KPT.

The coordination and control over the implementation of the agreement would be performed by UAE’s Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure and Pakistan’s MOMA.

The UAE government will nominate “Abu Dhabi Ports Company PJSC (AD Ports) as its nominated entity while Pakistan will declare KPT as a counterpart nominated entity. Both nominated entities shall enter into and agree on the technical, economic and commercial terms of the transaction. Another committee led by Minister for Maritime Affairs Faisal Ali Sabzwari will meet early next week to finalise these terms so that the facility is taken over by the new concessionaire.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2023