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Pakistan has brushed aside claims by opponents of privatisation that NRI steel baron Lakshmi Mittal was behind a Russian company's takeover bid for its state-owned steel firm PSM, saying that Indian groups were barred from participating in the bidding process.
Pakistan's Privatisation Commission had banned three Indian groups from the bidding process for the takeover of Pakistan Steel Mills, Privatisation Minister Zahid Hamid said.
"We don't have knowledge of someone playing as a frontman for an Indian group," he said about claims that Mittal was behind the Russian company, which bid for PSM.
"In case we had such information, that bidder would have been banned from taking part in the bidding," the minister said.
He said three Indian groups -- Mittal Group, Esaar Group and Global Steel (UAE-based holding company promoted by Pramod Mittal and Vinod Mittal), -- had applied to take part in the PSM bid, but none of them was allowed to.
He said two of the groups were Dubai-based, but were barred from the process owing to their Indian origin. A Russian company along with local and Gulf partners was allowed to take over the firm, but the deal was struck down by Pakistan Supreme Court as null and void.
Asked whether the government had fixed responsibility for wrongdoing in the PSM case on any official, Hamid said it was waiting the apex court's detailed judgement, and any comment at this time would be premature.