TCC wanted to sell PIA’s overseas properties to recover the $6 billion award from the World Bank’s tribunal
The High Court of Justice of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) ruled in favor of Pakistan regarding the attachment of assets belonging to the Pakistan International Airlines Investment Ltd (PIAIL), including hotels in New York (Roosevelt) and Paris (Scribes) in a case initiated by Tethyan Copper Company (TCC). The properties were requested to be attached as part of TCC’s efforts for the enforcement of the Reko Diq award amounting to about $6 billion.
The Attorney General Office’s International Disputes Unit (IDU) said that Pakistan has won the case and any order previously obtained by TCC is no longer in effect. “Pakistan has won the BVI case initiated by TCC to enforce the ICSID [International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes] award,” stated IDU. It is also reported that TCC has been asked to pay the legal fees for the proceedings.
The official twitter account for PIA expressed delight at the development and said that the airline rightly got back its hard earned assets.
Rekodiq Case
TCC, a conglomerate of Australian and Chilean firms, received a government of Balochistan contract in 1998 related with mining of metals. It was eventually terminated by the government in 2011 on the basis of a court order which saw irregularities in receiving the contract initially.
TCC took the case at international platforms and received approximately $6 billion in compensation from the World Bank’s tribunal. Pakistan’s stance was that the deal was canceled under court orders but the response was deemed unsatisfactory. The company stated that it invest $220 million in the work. The award was based on the expected revenues for the company until 2056 when the deal was to come to an end.