Govt defends, PPP assails placing regulators under ministries

Ministers say step will help govt accelerate decision-making process; PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwalla says govt has set example of dictatorship, authoritative ruleBy Mehtab Haider

ISLAMABAD: The government’s decision to give administrative control of five crucial regulatory bodies to concerned ministries has been taken by top guns of the incumbent regime with the purpose to accelerate the process of getting decisions on crucial power, oil and gas related projects worth billions of rupees keeping in view the next general elections.

But the opposition parties have criticised the decision of the government, arguing that the regulatory regime was destroyed to get liked decisions on crucial projects. “We have taken this decision to improve coordination and it will help the government accelerate decision making process. Some regulators are already working under jurisdiction of concerned ministries such as Pemra, SECP, CCP and SBP so it will not affect working of the sectors if Nepra, Ogra, PTA, FAB and PPRA comes under administrative control of concerned ministries,” said two ministers of the PML-N while talking to The News here on Tuesday. 

The ruling PML-N believes that the regulatory bodies were becoming stumbling block in their way to complete energy projects till June 2018 so they decided to get administrative control through office memorandum, one top official of the government said. Now important decisions related to some projects related to the $51.5 billion China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and LNG projects were expected in coming weeks and months which were pending before Nepra and Ogra.

Independent economists said the government destroyed regulatory regime and now the regulators would not be able to perform their role of neutral umpire. Responding to media questions about the outcome of brining Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) under the administrative control of IT Ministry, Anusha Rehman said the prime minister is the minister-in-charge of IT Ministry as well as Cabinet Division, hence there would be no effect on these regulatory bodies performance. She further said that IT Ministry is already implementing its policies in collaboration with PTA. She said the PTA and FAB were put under control of the Cabinet Ministry during the Musharraf regime as earlier these regulators were working under jurisdiction of Ministry of IT. The minister, however, said the government decision of brining PTA and FAB under IT Ministry would help in value addition.

When journalists repeatedly asked to get viewpoint of Chairman PTA Syed Ismail Shah, he replied, “I have no clue of its affects and would be in position to comment after going through the government decision.”

However, the PPP has rejected the decision of giving control of regulatory bodies to their parent miniseries by changing the rules of business. The PPP Senator Saleem Mandviwalla said the federal government has lost all reason to call it a democratic government. It has set all examples of dictatorship, authoritative rule in this country.

Saleem Mandviwalla said that PMLN has become habitual of ruining the democracy in the country. He said the regulatory bodies were paralysed in the PML-N regime but now have become ineffective. He said federal government should close all these regulatory bodies rather than to make them ineffective.

Mandviwalla was of the view that in a democratic country no one can think of compromising the independence of regulatory bodies. He said regulatory bodies all over the world are given more autonomy to check the market and government decisions to protect the consumers.

He said the PML-N government does not want to protect the poor people of Pakistan but it wants to rule them through dictatorship. He said the PPP rejects this authoritarian decision of the federal government and demands its withdrawal immediately.