The government has constituted a four member committee to be headed by Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal to decide the fate of Chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Syed Ismail Shah and Member (Finance) Tariq Sultan to continue for the next term.
Chairman PTA is going to complete his four year term on November 13, while Member Finance has already completed his four year tenure on September 26, 2017. The first tenure of four years of Member Enforcement Abdul Samad would be completed in June 2018.
The committee is comprised of Secretary Information Technology, Additional Secretary Law Division, Additional Secretary Establishment Division, Additional Secretary Cabinet Division while it was chaired by the Interior Minister.
As per the rules, all members of the authority will be appointed for a term of four years and will be eligible for re-appointment for a similar term with the approval of Prime Minister, provided the performance of the chairman/members is found satisfactory by the committee.
Federal government will appoint a Chairman of the authorities from amongst the member(s) with the approval of Prime Minster.
Dr. Syed Ismail Shah was initially appointed Member (Technical) and given acting charge of the Chairman PTA. He has an Engineering Bachelors from Pakistan and Ph.D in Electrical Engineering from University of Pittsburgh , PA , USA . He brings with him rich experience of both private and government sector.
Tariq Sultan has also remained Director General (DG) and DG (Revenue Assurance) in PTA for several years. He holds MBA from IBA Karachi, Masters in Accounting and Finance from Manchester University and CIMA from Canada .
During his tenure PTA witnessed a revolutionary period as all major developments occurred during this time including 3G/4G spectrum auction, Cyber crime Law, controlling grey traffic, ban and reopening of Youtube, Biometric Verification of SIMs, Telecom Policy, draft Digital Pakistan Policy, a merger of operators etc.
Ismail Shah ranks among Asia’s most renowned telecom professionals, with expertise and experience spanning 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. This has been recognized by the GSMA in the shape of the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award 2015 given to Pakistan .
He has also been elected as the Vice-President of the General Assembly of the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT), and over the years, has been a keynote speaker and a sought-after panelist on major global events like the ITU Telecom World Forum 2014 and MENA Spectrum Management Conference, sharing his insights on spectrum management, technical capacity-building, regulations, broadband policy, and the proliferation of digital services and applications.
