PTCL has closed its 170 telephone exchanges in Pakistan. This was told to Chairman National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology & Telecommunications Chaudhry Muhammad Berjees Tahir who was chairing a meeting to discuss complaints made by the members and consumers regarding the poor performance and deteriorating standard of PTCL.
Representative from PTCL informed the committee that these exchanges were closed due to on-going economic crunch. It was informed that only those exchanges, with little traffic and more expenses were closed. It was further informed that PTCL is planning to further 30 exchanges in same manner.
On other hands, Committee was not comfortable with the said situation, and it strongly recommended that no exchange should be closed, misplaced or sold forthwith
The Committee took a serious note of the violation of contract between Etisalat and Government of Pakistan in which Etisalat having only 26 percent of shares holds the management of PTCL and does not bother about the complaints made by the Members of the Parliament and consumers. The Committee also directed the PTCL management to facilitate the customers and not burden them with extra call charges.