ISLAMABAD  - Minster of State for IT and Telecom Anusha Rehman has clearly refused to Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology who had recommended not to hold next generation auction till the third member of Pakistan Telecom Authority would have been appointed.
During the standing committee meeting here on Thursday, minister told the committee that it could send its rulings to Senate but the government was not bound to follow and the auction was going to be held on time as decided by PTA.
A debate took place during the meeting in which especially the senators of opposition benches demanded that the auction must be held before the third member of PTA is appointed. They argued that the authority was not complete yet and the auction should not be held before that but Anusha categorically rejected their demands.
Faisal Raza Abidi during the meeting said that he was the person who had opposed this auction in the time of PPP and now again he was of the view that such an important auction should not be held in a hurry. At some point he also exchanged harsh words with the PPP Senator Rehman Malik and even asked him to walk out from the meeting if he wanted so.
Abidi said that the government could hire a bureaucrat as member PTA but the government in response referred to the Supreme Court that in one of suo moto case had given observation for giving additional charge of Secretary Law as Member of PTA.
Secretary IT Akhalque Tarar told the committee that the Commission established by the government decided to re-advertise the slot of third member of PTA because only two applications received for this position. Now renowned firm has been hired for the process of short listing of applications and the hiring of third member into PTA will be completed.
Senator Raza Abidi during the meeting had asked the Chairman PTA to introduce the committee about the members of the Authority. The Chairman PTA replied that there were two members including him and another one had gone abroad for attending a workshop while acting charge of third member was lying with Secretary Law.
Senators also protested over receiving official documents with undue delays. Officials of IT Ministry responded that the whole team was busy for successful completion of upcoming transaction which was due on April 23, 2014 and that might be the reason behind some delays.
Minister of State for IT whereas agreed to a proposal given by Senator Rehman Malik of PPP for de-notifying Auction Supervisory Committee led by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar. Minister said that the Supervisory Committee had accomplished its work by preparing policy in consultation with the stakeholders and Prime Minister would be asked to de-notify it.
Now it will be responsibility of PTA to accomplish transaction of 3G and 4G in transparent manner.