The auctions of 3G licenses is a very hot topic in telecommunication industry from couple of months which is not getting a green signal up till now. According to a latest news, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority could not finalize the hiring of consultants for this auction up till now. After knowing this fact, ASC has instructed the concerned authorities to give advertisement in media for interested candidates and finalize the selection in 48 hours.
The head of ASC (Auction Supervisory Committee), Dr. Abdul Hafeez Shaikh took this decision and passed the orders of delaying the auction. There is still no news about the exact date or even the week in which this auction will be conducted. Even it seems that PTA will not be able to meet the deadline of December 2012 set by the government. He did not convey any positive remarks regarding the previous progress of work in this regard. While sharing his thoughts on this issue, Dr. Hafeez Shaikh said that,
โIn order to achieve transparency in this transaction, we are moving cautiously and if it is done within the current fiscal year, there should not be any problem,โ
A senior official of ASC also clarified the situation by saying that,
โThe ASC directed the PTA to seek fresh applications by advertising within 48 hours. Although, this deadline has lapsed and so far PTA is unmoved,โ
Three interested applicants applied for the position of consultant but ASC rejected all of them. One of them could not submit the processing fee and one of them was from India which was refused due to security reason. Whereas, the third applicant was rejected on technical grounds.
The most astonishing fact is that the spokesperson of PTA said that his organization is totally unaware from results of ASCโs last meeting. This is really alarming and should be addressed by the government on immediate basis. The spokesperson did not talk about this issue in detail and just said that the media will be updated in next week. As soon as any further update will be surfaced from the PTA or ASC, we will update our blog.
On the other hands, the chairman of PTA is not happy with the selection of investigation team members. After knowing it, the head of ASC asked the chairman PTA straight forwardly that why he didnโt keep monitoring the process of hiring consultants? And he should focus on making the procedure fast instead of pointing finger on others.
The root cause of delay is also the typical behavior of blaming each other and not concentrating on work. The real problem raised due to the controversy between Chairman PTA and member technical khawar Siddique khokhar.
According to a PTA estimate, the delay of each day in auction is causing a loss of Rs. 38 million. It is really huge figure and should be taken seriously.
For the betterment of Pakistan and telecom sector, this issue should get resolved immediately and concerned authorities should conduct this auction as soon as possible. We will keep an eye on all this and will update PakTelecom.net as soon as any news will be surfaced. So stay tuned.
