The Democratic Party of Kosovo, LDK and the nationalist Vetevendosje movement have asked parliament to hold an extraordinary session on the privatization of PTK on Thursday in order to set up an inquiry looking into the whole process.

“The process was launched illegally, without a decision of the competent institution, which is the Kosovo parliament,” Ismet Beqiri, from the LDK, said.

He said that 40 lawmakers have backed the idea of establishing an inquiry commission, which would come up with a detailed report on the privatization of the PTK after a six-month inquiry.

The decision to privatize the Post and Telecoms of Kosovo was taken by the government in October 2008, but in June 2010 it decided to privatize only 75 per cent of PTK’s assets.

Since then, the process has been criticized by the opposition and experts.

After several delays, the government announced in April that a German company, AXOS-capital, in consortium with Najafi Companies LLC, had been selected as the winner to take over 75 per cent of PTK in return for the sum of 270 million euro.

However, in another snag, the company decided to delay signing a contract for three weeks at the beginning of September.

Adem Grabovci, from the governing Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK, said if the privatization process foundered again this time, “it will be difficult to get an offer like 270 million euro again.

“Unfortunately, the process is heading towards failure, and the damage to the economy will be huge,” he said.

One problem is that the government of Serbia contests Kosovo’s right to sell off 75 per cent of PTK, saying the company belongs to Serbia’s own Post and Telecom company.

The claim relates to Serbia’s non-recognition of Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, proclaimed in 2008.