$35m award stalls Roosevelt deal

According to The Express Tribune, Pakistan's cabinet Economic Coordination Committee on Monday approved forming a negotiation committee to resolve a labour dispute with the union representing staff at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York. The union obtained an award of at least $35 million, which could complicate a planned joint venture with the US General Services Administration to run the hotel. The panel will include officials from the defence and finance ministries, the Privatisation Commission, a US-based legal counsel and two members of the PIA Investment Limited board.

The panel is meant to reach a one-time deal covering every open matter with the union and to get both sides to drop litigation. It also wants the union to back the hotel's applications for approvals needed for redevelopment. Separately, the ECC set the hotel's loan limit at $153.8 million and permitted its National Bank of Pakistan debt to be turned into rupee funding backed by sovereign guarantees.

Among other decisions, the ECC cleared a sale and purchase agreement between OQ Trading and PSO under an intergovernmental pact with Oman. It also allowed fuel imports through customs bonded storage amid disruption in the Strait of Hormuz and permitted 15% imported wheat to be blended with local grain before provincial supplies.