Pakistan's PIA faces asset grab in British Virgin Islands

PIA could see its assets attached by the High Court of Justice in the British Virgin Islands, where it is incorporated, over a longstanding dispute between its shareholder, the Pakistan state, and gold and copper exploration giant Tethyan Copper Company (TCC). TCC has asked the High Court to enforce a US$5.97b award against Pakistan by the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) arbitral tribunal granted on July 12, 2019. The settlement award related to the Pakistan Province of Balochistan in 2011 having refused TCC a mining lease for the development of a US$3.3b copper-gold mine at Reko Diq in Balochistan. This resulted in TCC filing a case against Pakistan with the ICSID in 2012. The enforcement of the award was provisionally stayed in September 2019, which was again extended on September 17, 2020, after the Pakistan government had applied for its annulment. In a statement in December 2020, the office of the Attorney General for Pakistan (AGP) confirmed that TCC had initiated proceedings for the enforcement of the award before the High Court of Justice in the British Virgin Islands and that TCC sought the attachment of certain assets belonging to Pakistani institutions.<br/>