Politicians, bureaucrats on boards get hefty fee

Senate IT panel expresses reservations about constitution of SOE boards

ISLAMABAD:

Political figures and bureaucrats are dominating boards of directors of Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) and its subsidiary Ufone, who receive hefty fee in dollars for attending meetings.

Senator Anusha Rehman is part of the Ufone board. The Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication was informed that a bureaucrat was also a member of Ufone board, who was sitting on five boards of state-owned companies.

"A female government officer is a member of five different boards," said Senator Afnanullah during the meeting held on Tuesday. The Senate committee, chaired by Senator Palwasha Khan, reviewed the composition of boards of PTCL and Ufone. The Ministry of IT submitted a detailed list of board members and their positions.

The Senate panel also examined several other issues, including mobile service shutdowns, rising mobile internet package rates, the Islamabad household survey and the governance of state-run institutions.

It was revealed that Senator Anusha Rehman, a member of the Senate IT committee, had been serving on a telecom company board. Senator Saadia Abbasi questioned whether other MNAs and senators were similarly holding positions on boards of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

They noted that several lawmakers and public figures held seats across multiple corporate boards. Afnanullah pointed out that government officers holding seats on different boards raised concerns about transparency, merit and potential conflict of interest.

The committee expressed strong reservations about the manner in which boards of major public institutions and SOEs were being constituted. It called for strict scrutiny, merit-based appointments and a clear framework to prevent the overlapping of legislative roles and board memberships.

The committee decided to continue its review of board compositions and indicated that examination of the appointment process would follow in the coming sessions. Officials of the National Cyber Crime Investigation Agency (NCCIA) briefed the meeting on corruption inquiries, revealing that two FIRs had been registered against NCCIA officers. One FIR has been lodged in Lahore and the other in Islamabad.

Eight officers have been named in the first FIR whereas 10 officers face corruption charges in the second FIR. These officers belong to grades 16 to 18. The Senate panel was told that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had recovered Rs425 million under the first FIR. The standing committee summoned FIA officials in its next meeting.

The IT panel expressed reservations about the collection of citizens' data through household surveys in Islamabad. They warned that the absence of an effective data protection law in Pakistan could put citizens' lives and property at risk if sensitive information was leaked.

The shutdown of mobile network in the Lakki Marwat district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa also came under discussion. Senator Attaur Rehman said the government routinely suspends mobile services, citing security reasons. He questioned how an elected representative or a citizen would communicate in an emergency.