PTA chairman given additional charge

Appointed as interim chief of ICT R&D Fund until new CEO is announced

KARACHI: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Syed Ismail Shah has been given the additional charge of interim chief of the National Information and Communication Technology, Research and Development (ICT R&D) Fund, officials familiar with the matter told The Express Tribune.

In a meeting last week, the Board of Directors of the ICT R&D Fund - an independent government body - agreed to give the additional charge of the Fund’s interim CEO to the PTA chief till a permanent head can be appointed, officials said.



The decision came after Syed Muhammad Asif Rumi, the Fund’s former chief resigned from this position a month ago. While Shah will act as the acting CEO of the Fund, the government will look to appoint a permanent head for the organisation, which typically takes two to three months.

Having a long-serving head for the national Fund, which is meant to support research and development in the technology sector, has remained a troubled area for successive governments.

Before Rumi’s resignation, the Fund was operating without a CEO for almost two years. Before that Syed Aun Abbas, a former chief, resigned from his position stating he was displeased over bureaucratic interventions in day to day operations of the fund.

The ICT R&D Fund is financed by the telecom sector, which contributes 0.5% of its revenue to the independent government body. According to sources familiar with the matter, the Fund currently has about Rs50 billion in its book but a bulk of it was transferred to the national consolidated fund.

Through there was improvement in its projects over the period of last 12 months, the Fund’s chief resigned.

According to officials, the BoD were not willing to approve anyone from the IT ministry as acting CEO. However, it was due to Shah’s track record as PTA chairman that nobody from the BoD objected to the proposal of giving him the interim charge.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 22^nd,  2016.

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