Kamran Ali Being Considered as Favorite for PTA’s Top Slot

Ahmed Rayyan

Kamran Ali, Member Legal of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication (MoITT) is being considered as favorite person for the position of PTA chairman.

Sources said the member legal of MoITT is experienced and competent person in the ministry having cordial relationship with Federal Secretary, Farooq Ahmad Awan and Raja Pervaiz Asharf.

They said the federal secretary is close to Prime Minister having his all out support to deal with affairs of ministry including hiring and firing for all positions with in the ministry. However, the appointment of PTA top slot is made by Cabinet Division afterwards the approval of PM in which the secretary is likely to play an important role to recommend the name of Kamran Ali for the post of PTA’s top position.

Kamran Ali has also worked for PTA as Director General Legal and Regulations. He has spent a brief period in Telenor Pakistan as well.

Industry people said his appointment as PTA chairman will be good decision for the government because he is legal expert who can play an important role for generating revenues in the sub-judice cases.

According to an estimate, PTA’s revenue of Rs 50 billion could be recoverable from the cases filed by different telecom operators on different accounts.

The authority is facing financial crisis and it is no longer profitable entity for itself and for the government as well. Even it is unable to pay its income tax on time that caused attachment of its accounts by tax authority.

Besides him, there are few more names being considered by the government including PEMRA action chairman Dr Abdul Jabbar, PTA’s Member Technical Dr Khawar Siddique Khokar, Dr Basit, a former PTA director and Dr Awais, a Telecom expert.

The present PTA chairman, Dr Yaseen is unlikely  to continue his extension period, as he wanted to quit the authority after completion of his service term by next month but a slight possibility is still there that he will be asked to continue his job for a period of one year.