PTA failure to frame its rules perturbs PAC body

ISLAMABAD: A sub committee of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) noted with regret that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has failed to frame its rules since its establishment, and when there are no rules the committee did not take up the audit paras of the PTA involving millions of rupees.

The sub committee also expressed its annoyance over the absence of secretary Information and Technology from the meeting and refused to examine the audit paras unless and until the secretary ensured its presence in the meeting.

The sub committee on Implementation and Monitoring of the PAC directives held its meeting on Thursday with Convener Rana Afzaal Hussain in the chair. The agenda was to view the audit paras relating to Ministry of Information and Technology for the years 1999 to 2009.

The Audit officials told the committee under the PTA Act, it was mandatory for the PTA to formulate their rules and get approval of these rules from the federal government but instead they formulated their own regulation for which they did not seek approval of the government.

However Chairman PTA did not agree with the audit saying that they have formulated their rules and there was no need to get approval of the government. PAC member Mehmood Khan Achackzai said that the PAC in 2014 directed the PTA to formulate the rules but they had ignored the directives and so far did not make their rules. “They are not only wasting our time but also millions of rupees of the nation,” he observed.

The PTA failed to satisfy the sub-committee of the PAC on different audit objections. Expressing strong annoyance over the PTA for its failure to satisfy the committee on the audit objections, the sub committee asked the PTA for not to deal the parliament like the East India Company. “You are under the Parliament and not under East India Company,” the committee remarked. They should not consider themselves above the parliament, said Member PAC Mian Abdul Manan of PAC. He asked as to why they failed to get approval of the government for the rules. This has always the main objection of the Audit officials, he added. The Sub-committee of the PAC adjourned the meeting till next month in view of the non-serious attitude of the officials of the PTA and Ministry of Information and Technology.