The committee comprises secretary information technology, additional secretary Law Division, additional secretary Establishment Division and additional secretary Cabinet Division, while it would be chaired by the interior minister.
Sources revealed to Business Recorder that first meeting of the committee was earlier scheduled for October 13, but the interior minister has left for the United State so the meeting is now rescheduled to be held on October 17.
The PTA chairman is going to complete his four years term on November 13, while member finance has already completed his four years tenure on September 26, 2017. In case, the member finance was not given extension, he would stand retired as he has resigned from the post of director general in PTA. The first tenure of four years of Member Enforcement Abdul Samad would complete in June 2018. Even the member enforcement is not given extension for another term; he would be posted as DG, as he had not resigned from the post but had taken leave.
As per the rules, all members of the authority will be appointed for a term of four years and will be eligible for re-appointment for a similar term with the approval of the prime minister, provided the performance of the chairman/members is found satisfactory by the committee notified. The federal government will appoint a member to be the chairman of the authority from amongst the member(s) with the approval of the prime minister.
Dr Syed Ismail Shah was initially appointed member (technical) and given acting charge of the chairman PTA. He has a bachelor degree in engineering from Pakistan and PhD degree in electrical engineering from University of Pittsburgh, PA, USA. He has a rich experience of both private as well as government sectors.
Tariq Sultan also worked as Director General and DG (Revenue Assurance) in the PTA for several years. He holds an MBA degree from IBA Karachi, masters in accounting and finance from Manchester University and CIMA degree from Canada.
During the tenure of incumbent setup, the PTA witnessed a revolutionary period as all major developments occurred during the period, including 3G/4G spectrum auction, cyber law, controlling grey traffic, ban/reopening of Youtube, biometric verification of SIMs, telecom policy, draft Digital Pakistan Policy, operators merger and etc.
Dr Ismail Shah ranks among Asia's most renowned telecom professionals, with expertise and experience spanning over 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G technologies. This has been recognized by the GSMA in the shape of the Spectrum for Mobile Broadband Award 2015 given to Pakistan. In 2014, Dr Shah played a key role in the election of Pakistan to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Council.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017