The Ministry of IT and Telecom (MoITT) has formed a committee to solve the problems related to the right of way (RoW), well-informed sources told ProPakistani.
The committee will comprise Ministry of IT and Telecom officials and representatives from telecom companies.
According to sources, the IT Ministry has formed a committee at the request of telecom operators. The committee will work to remove the obstacles in the way of implementation of the right of way policy.
Sources added that despite the approval of the right-of-way policy, the right-of-way problems of telecom companies are not resolved completely. Under the right-of-way policy, if there is any dispute between the land owner and the operator regarding charges or any other issue, the matter will go to the “appropriate government”.
The Federal Government, KP, Balochistan, and Sindh have nominated representatives for the “appropriate government” forum. However, the largest province, Punjab, has not yet nominated any representative for this forum.
Talking to ProPakistani, GM Nayatel Aqeel Khurshid said that many problems of the operators have been solved after approval of the right-of-way policy. However, there were some issues regarding the implementation of the policy for which progress has been made.
He said that if someone stops a company from working on the right of way, action should be taken against him as per the right of way policy. The police or FIA do not process the case until the authority does. The authority under the policy is the PTA which used to refer the cases to the IT Ministry which was causing unusual delay.
According to Aqeel Khurshid, companies are facing problems in working within housing societies. If the telecom companies install infrastructure on the right-of-way poles, the housing societies demand a fee for this land as well. The formation of a committee to solve these problems is a welcome initiative
