While hearing a plea seeking court orders to declare incumbent chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) appointment illegal on the grounds of conflict of interest Thursday Islamabad High Court (IHC) issued notices for comprehensive reply from the respondents in the matter.
A petitioner Ameer Haider Cheema has invoked jurisdiction of the IHC claiming that the appointment of a former head of a telecom organization as the head of telecom regulator amounts to blatant conflict of interest and urged the court to declare the appointment illegal.
Advocate Umer Ijaz Gilani appeared before single-member bench of the Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani in the matter. He apprised the bench saying the petitioner has pointed out that just before he became the head of PTA, the retired major general Aamir Azeem was heading a telecom operator Special Communications Organization (SCO). He apprised the bench that the SCO comes under the Ministry of IT and Telecom, is a licensee of the PTA which competes fiercely with private telecom companies. The petitioner complains that “the appointment of a former head of a state-run telecom licensee as the head of the regulator creates a case of CONFLICT OF INTEREST which is strictly barred under Section 3(2) of the Pakistan Telecommunication (Reorganization) Act, 1996.”
Citing Lahore High Court verdict which the court pronounced during 2013 in response to petition Advocate Gilani apprised the LHC had set aside appointment of the then Chairman PTA on the ground that the then Chairman PTA had been served with PTCL, another state-owned telecom licensee.
During the course of the arguments, counsel for the petitioner pointed out that while serving as DG SCO, the incumbent chairman of the PTA who earlier after his appointment as DG SCO had filed a writ petition against PTA (W.P 3291/2018). Advocate Gilani submitted, “now, as Chairman PTA, he is ironically supposed to defend the petition where the SCO was trying to establish a monopoly over the AJK & GB market and to oust all private competitors”.
The petitioner counsel alleged, “While this writ petition was still pending, the DG SCO crossed over to the other side and became Chairman PTA – Since then, the petition has remained suspiciously pending. Recently, eyebrows were also raised when a $1million worth telecom spectrum was handed over by PTA to SCO while private sector licensees were charged a hefty amount, thus creating an impression of non-level playing field in the telecom sector.
“After hearing preliminary arguments of the petitioner, Justice Kayani issued notices to respondents including incumbent chairman PTA directing them to submit detailed response in the matter and adjourned hearing of the matter for two weeks.
It is pertinent to mention that earlier on June 07, the same bench has directed office to place the petition before Chief Justice Athar Minallah after hearing arguments of Advocate Gilani that connected W.P.No.3291/2018 is pending in the IHC. However, after going through a consolidation and de-clubbing process, Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani adjudicated the petition on Thursday.
