Islamabad High Court (IHC) has passed an order to bind the on-going process of recruitment of Members and Chairman of Pakistan Telecom Authority (PTA) with final judgment of the case to be announced after receiving written comments of parties.
Hearing the petition submitted by Wahaj us Siraj, CEO of Nayatel and Convener ISP Association of Pakistan (ISPAK), Justice Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui of IHC has directed Cabinet Division to continue the process of appointment of Members of PTA but directed that “appointment of members shall strictly depend on the final outcome of this Writ Petition”.
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, i.e., 14 February 2013, a new advertisement altering the qualifications, age and experience requirements was malafidely 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 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.
In a related news, Chief Justice of IHC, Justice Muhammad Anwar Khan Kasi has dismissed Writ Petition filed by Sajjad Awan, Director General, PTA challenging his transfer from the post of Director General Enforcement to DG Coordination.
Sajjad, a favourite of Farooq Awan, was given charges of three powerful posts of Director Generals in PTA including Enforcement, Legal and HR, during Awan’s five months tenure as Chairman and was transferred by two members of PTA soon after LHC ordered dismissal of Farooq Awan.
Sajjad had pleaded that his transfer was illegal on the account that administrative and financial powers of PTA can only be exercised by its Chairman and members of Authority had no administrative and administrative powers.
IHC granted a restraining order to Sajjad Awan on 7 February against two members’ orders PTA but Justice Kasi has today dismissed his petition while upholding the decisions of two members of PTA in exercising administrative and financial powers under relevant sections of Telecom Act.
PTA is currently totally dysfunctional as its Member Finance, Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi completed his second four years’ tenure on 24 February whereas tenure of Member Technical, Dr. Khawar Siddique Khokhar would be ending on 16 March.
Dr. Khawar, fearing life threats, is reportedly not attending the office in PTA since 4 February when armed men allegedly from FIA and Police tried to abduct two members of PTA from their offices.
Telecom industry grew up and facilities were open for every body after it was snatched out from teeth of bureaucracy. It seems that it is going back in their hands who didn’t delivered anything to this country in 65 years.
CABIN FEVER:
Sajjad Latif was a crazy freak to begin with, inspired into action by the spicy character Don Quixote, annointed into the role of Don of the underworld jumped into a malady of corrupt practices , in a mismatched background theme of a draining Telecom Industry, sponsored by CabiNUT a host to many parasites, directed by Farooq Awan a jolly old fellow with locked horns and broken hooves, produced by Parveen the drama queen and co produced by FIA wannabes … fools rush in where angels fear to tread… he actually thought he could get way with the Mission Impossible of imperfectly executed crime … and landed in a ball of fire.
WARID TELECOM HAS STARTED SELLING THE DATA OF THEIR CLIENTS TO MARKETING COMPANIES: Warid Telecom has started selling the personal details of its customers to various marketing companies for sales and marketing purpose. Today I received a call from Dreamworld Resort Company for any promotion of its services but took my name while addressing me. When I asked him how did he got my personal details he tried to parry the answer but it is confirmed that only cellular company has the data of both number and personal details of each client. It means now cellular companies have started taking another advantage from their clients that is sheer violation of the privacy laws of the country.
Well done Wahaj. You are doing a really good job to save PTA from the evil hands of bandits. Keep it up. Our prayers are with you.
propakistani se guzarish hai k tamaam maloomat urdo min jald update kardiya karien bahut shukriya
propakistani se guzarish hai k tamaam maloomat urdu min jald update kardiya karien bahut shukriya
It is very strange to see that the government is still supporting Farooq Awan and Sajjad Awan in spite of the fact that these two chaps have ditched the PPP government and our beloved country by spoiling the 3G auction. The government could have easily earned multi billion dollars from the auction of 3G but the whole process was ditched by the two Awans. They have also earned bad name for the country and the government by signing unlawful agreement with foreign consultants for 3G auction process which was ultimately cancelled on declaring the same unlawful by the NAB. Now who is responsible for all the mess created by the two Awans for for the billions dollar losses to the exchequer. It appears from the media that the consultants are going for legal course of action against PTA which may further delay the auction. The government should analyse the whole process to see how the whole process was destroyed by the Awans once Farooq Awan took the charge of Secretary at Ministry of IT. Before Awan arrival at the IT ministry, the process of 3G auction was moving ahead very smoothly, but as he landed in the affairs of IT, he first suspended a very competent and honest Member Telecom at IT ministry and then started to destroy the process.
Despite what he has done to the telecom sector and the country, some powerful in the government are still trying to post him in PTA as member finance/ chairman. It is very surprising to see such efforts and one can just think that probably such people are the enemy of this country. If they think they are not the enemy of this country then they should realize the losses caused by the two Awans and save the telecom sector from the ill desires of the same.