Hidden hand wants to sabotage 3G auction

[Gentelman]

LAHORE, Dec 22: Information technology
ministry sees a ‘hidden hand’ that wants
to sabotage the process of the much-
awaited auction of 3rd Generation
Spectrum (3G) licences and fears it may
further be delayed if the prime minister
fails to intervene in the matter.
The ministry has also informed Prime
Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf about hiring of
consultants to auction the 3G licences, their
recommendations, accord with the
Transparency International and
‘unnecessary’ interference by the National
Accountability Bureau (NAB) in the process.
“The auction of 3G licences has already
been postponed twice during the last one
year or so and now some elements have
again become active to sabotage the
process,” the prime minister’s adviser on IT,
Dr Basit Riaz Sheikh, told Dawn on Saturday.
Dr Basit said some people deliberately
made the hiring of three consultants
controversial to achieve their vested
interests.
“The consultants — Dr Rob Nicholls, Dennis
Ward and Martin Sims — have been hired
for their rich experience in the field for the
auction of the licences against Rs52 million,”
he said, the objection being raised that the
Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA)
did not follow the Pakistan Procurement
Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules while
hiring the consultants had no legal ground.
“The PPRA rules are to be followed in
procurement of goods/services and not
recruitment. The PPRA rules do not apply in
case of recruitment of the consultants,” he
said, adding the consultants also met the
heads of the five telecom operators and
National Assembly’s standing committee in
this regard.
Dr Basit said the National Accountability
Bureau (NAB) had no jurisdiction to take up
this matter.
Earlier, the NAB had questioned the process
being adopted for auctioning the 3G
licences, claiming that it was not in line with
the PPRA rules.
“NAB has no jurisdiction in this case and we
have signed an agreement with the
Transparency International so that nobody
could raise finger on the transparency of the
auction process,” he said.
Dr Basit said the government was expecting
US$1 billion revenue from the auction and it
would also create 40,000 jobs.
“The country is being deprived of Rs68
million revenue because of delay in the
auction,” he said. He said if the process
remained ‘hurdle-free’ the government
would be able to offer the auction to all five
telecom operators – Mobilink, Ufone,
Telenor, Zong and Warid – next month.
The 3G represents a spectrum allowing
higher speeds of data transmission. The 3G
spectrum is a latest technology in cell phone
service that provides facilities of mobile TV,
video-conferencing, tele-medicine, location-
based services and video on demand.The
3G licencing has been successfully carried
out in most of the neighboring countries,
including India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and
Sri Lanka.
Hidden hand wants to

 

[qasimali]

Corruption is eating everything in our Country but i'm still hopeful that 3G Spectrum will be auctioned soon.