Etisalat is entitled to withhold payments until the property titles gets transferred to Pakistan Telecommunications (PTCL), said its chairman Mohammad Omran, responding to Pakistani media reports.

Etisalat is an UAE public corporation and applies the highest standards of transparency in conducting its business operations and international expansion strategy, he added.

Omran's comments came as Pakistani media reported that the country's Minister of Privatisation Waqar Ahmed Khan, had sought an enquiry following a dispute between Etisalat and Pakistan over the sale of a 26 per cent stake in PTCL.

'Etisalat’s investment in PTCL came in the wake of a welcome invitation and encouragement by the Government of Pakistan to participate in the privatisation process, which the Corporation was pleased to accept given the special and brotherly relations between the UAE and Pakistan,' he explained.

While Etisalat concluded the deal in 2006, it has withheld for the last year a $800 million payment claiming that the Pakistani government had not lived up to obligations to transfer 3,500 properties to PTCL.

Referring to the withholding of instalment payments, Omran said under the agreed terms of the transaction, 'Etisalat is entitled to withhold payments until the property titles were transferred to PTCL.'

The company chief clarified that 'the commercial agreements with Pakistan called for the transfer of the properties in question to PTCL and not to Etisalat.'

'When the properties are transferred to PTCL, the Government of Pakistan, being the 62 per cent shareholder of PTCL, will be the single largest beneficiary,' he stated.

'Our aim is to ensure that PTCL receives clean title to and possession of all properties,” Omran explained.

“We are confident that when the Privatisation Commission fulfils this obligation, Etisalat will immediately release the instalments,” he added.-TradeArabia News Service