ISLAMABAD – The government is in the process of striking a deal on the RekoDiq issue but the details are yet to be finalised, according to a seniorfinance ministry official, reported *Business Recorder*.
According to the report, Advisor on Finance Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh andAttorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Anwar Mansoor Khan flew to London for ameeting with the Reko Diq board on October 14, 2019. A spokesman for theFinance Ministry, in response to a question with regard to a pay out ofUS$1 billion to the company, stated that there is nothing final yet and“things are in pipeline”.
The AGP told the newspaper that “the matter is confidential and therefore Ican’t share anything about it. I will not confirm or deny your query.”
In a recent *Bloomberg *report, it was claimed that officials at theprovincial Balochistan government met with a consortium of four businessgroups including tycoons Arif Habib and Muhammad Ali Tabba who are willingto invest about $1 billion of their own cash in the project.
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The report stated that the consortium is willing to go through a biddingprocess to take over the project.
On July 13, 2019, International Center for Settlement of InvestmentDisputes announced a $5.976 billion award against Pakistan in the Reko Diqcase with $4.08 billion penalty and $1.87 billion interest to TCC, a jointventure between Chile’s Antofagasta Plc and Canada’s Barrick Gold, who hadfiled a lawsuit in 2012 against Pakistan in the international court ofsettlement after the Reko Diq contract awarded to it was suspended.
