IHC Directs Cabinet Division to Appoint PTA Members Based on First Advertisement Only

Islamabad High Court has directed Cabinet Division to appoint members of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority on basis of 29 January 2013 advertisement, i.e., first advertisement it had published for the recruitment of members of the authority.

Hearing the petition submitted by Wahaj us Siraj, CEO of Nayatel and Convener ISP Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of IHC directed the government to strike down the subsequent advertisements and to appoint members based on requirements mentioned in its first advertisement only.

The Petitioner had submitted that Cabinet Division first issued an advertisement for appointment of two Members PTA on 29 January 2013. But just one day after the last date for applying, i.e., 14 February 2013, a new advertisement altering the qualifications, age and experience requirements was issued in order to accommodate favourites and blue eyed of the Government.

The process was manipulated to such an extent that Cabinet Division after receiving applications and analysing the credentials of strong applicants, altered qualifications, experience and age criteria to filter out good candidates, the petitioner had noted.

PTA has been in turmoil since last few months when auction of highly lucrative and much scandalized multi billion dollar auction of 3G spectrum was stalled by NAB on illegal appointment of consultants and its ex-chairman, Farooq Awan was dismissed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) on 15 January 2013 on conflicts of interests and violation of Telecom Act, 1996.

PTA is currently totally dysfunctional as its Member Finance, Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi completed his second four years’ tenure on 24 February whereas Member Technical, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar completed his term on March 16th.

For readers’ reference here is the original advertisement that was published for the appointment of Member Technical on January 29th, 2013: