3G Auction: Supreme Court Directs to appoint PTA Chairman in One Week

3G Auction: Supreme Court Directs to appoint PTA Chairman in One Week

The Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the government to appoint the Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in One Week. The directive issued by the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry of the Supreme Court on Wednesday. They gave the government one-week time limit to assign the head of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA). The position of the Chairman PTA had been lying vacant since February and the bench said that the PTA was almost non-functional. The court questioned why was the PTA Chairman not assigned and observed that there should not be any further delay.

The order of the bench reads as:

“We direct the Secretary concerned to take up the issue immediately and discharge his function by appointing the chairman of the PTA without further loss of time.”

During the hearing on Chairman PTA Appointment the Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry asked about the auctionof 3G technology and said that without the chairman all the decisions taken up by the authority will not be legal.

Deputy Attorney General (DAG) for Pakistan Imran-UL-Haq told the court the government had already issued a schedule for bringing the 3G technology in the country.

DAG said that an acting chairman, Syed Ismail Shah ,had been appointed in the PTA, who would be removed after the appointment because the court reminded him that there was no concept of acting chairman under section 3 of the Pakistan Telecommunication Reorganisation Act 1996.

Syed Ismail Shah was appointed acting chairman under a notification issued on September 26, 2013. The court later adjourned the case for one week directing the government to appoint a permanent chairman at the earliest.

It's worth mentioned here that earlier Supreme Court of Pakistan has directed the government to appoint the members and chairman SCorders to appoint PTA Chairman PTA in 15 days of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in the next 15 days while keeping in view the rules and regulations of the institution. Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhary also ordered that the auction of 3G license must be done 15 days after the appointment of members and chairman of PTA.

Thus nothing come out. Now it is left to see what will happen next, will PTA appoint Chairman soon and the Pakistani nation will be able to relish the taste of 3G technology in coming months.

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