this transaction within four months period as we have already lost two and a half year.

The estimated loss to the economy because of this delay was about Rs20 billion,” Chairman PTA, Farooq Awan, said when The News asked about the auction of 3G licence on Tuesday night. He said that theministerial committee to look after this transaction would continue to exist but independentmonitoring committee will also be established to ensure transparency.

However, the sources said that the regulator of telecomsector was not going to repeat mistakewhich

it committed last year under leadership of former Chairman PTA in which Information Memorandum(IM) for 3Glicence was prepared in house and without appointing any qualified consultant that raised many questions about transparency of this deal. “NewIMwill be prepared by foreign consultant and base price

as well as reserve price will be worked out. The auction size and block will also be decided

through integrity pact as itwill be first ever government transaction with integrity pact and independentmonitoring committee comprising of media representatives and civil society with complete

access to record,” the chairman PTA further stated.

Earlier, there was wrong sequencing of 3G auction that resulted into creating bottlenecks and ultimately it got delayed.

Now with experience of past, the PTA will be in better position to come up with feasible proposal by fulfilling required pre-requisites.

If the government decides to go ahead by offering three spectrums it can attract investment to the tune of $1 to $1.5 billion