Senate panel seeks answers from Rashid for backtracking on 3G auction stance

A parliamentary panel had also grilled PTA for poor quality of 3G and 4G services provided by cellular companies

ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel on Monday summoned Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid for ‘backtracking from his earlier stance’ in relation to the auction of next-generation technology.

During the tenure of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) from 2008 to 2012, Rashid had raised his reservations in the Senate on an advertisement by the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on January 24, 2012, under the caption "Invitation for Expression of Interest (EoI) with applications for the auction of mobile cellular license/spectrum of 3G, 4G-LTE."

However, the Senate Standing Committee on information technology on Monday was informed by a secretary of the committee that Rashid was no longer pressing the reservations he had cited earlier due to a change in the circumstances.

The parliamentary panel took serious exceptions on the minister's conduct and sough an explanation.

“We have decided to issue a notice to the minister to appear and convince legislators as to why he wants to dispose of this matter, and [explain] the circumstances under which he has changed his mind,” committee members told Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman to convey their message to Rashid.

The Senate Standing Committee on IT has sought an explanation from the Universal Service Fund (USF) Board about its recommendations against the auction under the PTA committee, which the parliamentary panel believes was unlawfully constituted.

The committee summoned the secretary and members of the previous board to explain why the parliamentary panel's recommendations were rejected outright.

“It was better for USF to refer any problematic recommendation, made by this committee, to us for reconsideration,” Senator Zahid Khan said, adding that they wanted to ask the board members what authority they had to ignore their set of recommendations.

Citing a maxim, Rehman questioned why committee members were active in pursuing the complaint if Rashid himself was not willing to.

"Yes, we are pursuing it actively, because an impression is being created that the process initiated during the previous set-up was wrong. But it has become right with a change in regimes," the panel's chairman Senator Muhammad Idrees Safi observed .

PTA’s explains auction of next-generation technology

PTA officials told the committee that the auction was carried out by the authority in accordance with the provisions of the PTA Act (amended 2006), maintaining that no law had been violated.

“The advisory committee for the spectrum auction for the next generation mobile networks was constituted to finalise the policy directive on the spectrum auction for next generation mobile services in Pakistan,” said the officials.

In the past, a similar committee – also convened by the finance minister -- was constituted for the process.

Another parliamentary panel recently grilled the PTA over the poor quality of 3G and 4G services by cellular companies.

The committee, headed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's son-in-law, summoned cellular companies to appear before the panel to explain why they had failed to provide quality service to customers.

“We will ensure the attendance of cellular companies in the next meeting so that we can match statements of PTA and [cellular] companies about this genuine concern expressed by lawmakers,” said MNA Captain (retd) Safdar

“It is astonishing to see the conduct of the PTA, which is still adamant that everything is going extremely well,” a member of the committee said, adding, “We don’t know why the authority was protecting the interests of these companies.”