He said this while briefing the committee, which met with Barjees Tahir in the chair here on Tuesday. Awan said the Authority made some faulty decisions in last few years due to mismanagement and lack of planning, adding that some of the PTA officers are in the habit of interrupting unnecessarily instead of providing guideline to their seniors. Thereafter, he briefly apprised the committee about the efforts made by them to ensure transparency in 3G licences auction.
The committee directed PTA to hold the authority meeting as soon as possible to resolve the issue of hiring consultant so that the auction process of 3G license could be completed in a transparent manner. The committee strongly criticised the role of Auction Supervisory Committee (ASC) for causing unnecessary delay in 3G auction and recommended that the mandate of 3G auction might be limited to PTA for smooth functioning and effective accountability. They further said that it dictates PTA and also created hindrance for the regulatory body to move ahead in the process of 3G auction in the country.
Anusha Rehman said PTA should be in the driver''s seat, while the ASC should act secondary. But the situation is contrary to it and Finance Minister Dr Hafeez Sheikh is using all his influence during the process due to his vested interests. She said PTA evaluates consultants for 3G auctions, but ASC rejected them.
The committee showed concern over differences between chairman PTA, Member Technical Dr Khawar and Member Finance Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi and directed enhancing co-ordination for timely auction. Member Technical pointed out that chairman PTA hired a consultant that was earlier at the bottom of the list, which shows that how much transparent the process is? Shafqat Baloch said that both the parties are on same page and if chairman PTA was doing anything wrong, why did they not point it earlier?
Member Technical Dr Khawar Siddique Khokar said National Accountability Bureau (NAB) was not taken on board in consultants'' hiring process. Similarly, Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules were also not followed in this process. Member Finance Nasrul Karim Ghaznavi and Member Technical blamed PTA chairman for not taking them on board in the hiring process, which is also against the Authority Act.
They further said that 10 days have been taken from ASC for giving their point of view on Information of Memorandum (IM), however without their approval the auction process could not precede. Secretary of Ministry of IT Tariq Zaman Khan and Farooq Awan were on the same page, saying that the chairman has the power to hire consultant for a specific period of time without consulting other members of the Authority.
"Without prejudice to anything contained in these regulations, the chairman under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 10 of the Act may appoint advisory bodies, consultants on contract to advise the Authority in relation to its functions and exercise of its power," said chairman. He said due to internal clashes, PTA has remained dysfunctional and 3G auction delayed for years.
He clarified that MoU signed with Transparency International Pakistan was done to ensure supervision over the process however; parliament is the only institute that can check our performance. PTA further revealed that Advisory Group (Consultants) drafted IM of Cellular License/Spectrum Auction in 1900/2100 MHz AND 850 MHz. The draft IM has been circulated to stakeholders that include MOIT, Members of the Authority and relevant officers of PTA, on December 5, 2012 for valuable comments/suggestion.
During the meeting, Tariq Zaman said there is a specific lobby in the country that is propagating wrong news regarding PTA and this lobby had filed a case in LHC and obtained stay order against setting up of International Clearing House (ICH). The committee recommended that seasoned parliamentarians including Munawar Ali Talpur should monitor the 3G licence process and replace the ministers, who are members of ASC.