ISLAMABAD - A petition challenging the public auction of 3G and 4G spectrum was moved in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) here on Thursday.
Ch. Akram Sajid moved the petition through his counsel Raja Muqsit Nawaz Khan Advocate.
The counsel said, “The respondents had acted in excess of their jurisdiction in violation of the principles of fair play and transparency. There was error apparent and such excess of jurisdiction had resulted in manifest injustice to the people at large throughout Pakistan and heavy loss to the national/public exchequer.”
Raja Muqsit informed the court that in pursuance to the policy directive on spectrum auction for next generation mobile services, the PTA chairman in violation of provisions of Information Memorandum, PEPRA laws, malafidely colluded with existing telecom operators (bidders) to artificially reduce the 3G/4G spectrum price and caused major loss to national exchequer and auctioned this valuable national asset at very low price.
“The under-valuation is also evident from the value at which India has recently auctioned 3G spectrum. Indian has sold these spectrums for US$22 billion compared to only less than US$ 1 billion by Pakistan,” maintained Raja Muqsit.
His counsel stated that in view of the above, this has become evident that PTA and bidders in collusion have caused heavy losses of billions of dollars to people of Pakistan by auctioning 3G/4G spectrum at very low price.
Therefore, he prayed to the court that the auction procedure adopted by PTA is tainted, malafide, collusive, non-transparant, non-competitive, illegal and clear violation of PEPRA laws and fresh auction be conducted in transparant manner in accordance with law.