Senate Body for reducing line rents, taxes on Telecom services
By Ali Imran

ISLAMABAD—The Senate Standing Committee on Cabinet has called upon the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to promote competition, protect consumer’s interests and ensure high quality telecommunication services throughout the country. This observation was made by the Committee while having briefing on the working and performance of PTA.
Chairman PTA, Maj. Gen. (R) Shahzada Alam informed the Committee which met in the Parliament House here on Wednesday with Senator Mrs. Tanveer Khalid in the chair that PTA has introduced a number of incentives based policies to give boost to the telecom sector and said cellular phone industry has grown considerably in Pakistan. He informed Committee that efforts are being made to improve the internet facility in the country.
In reply to a question on provision of telecommunication facilities in Balochistan, the Chairman PTA stated that optical fiber is being laid in various cities of Balochistan and the province would be brought at par with other provinces as far as telecommunications facilities are concerned. He informed the Members of the Committee that the WLL would be extended to other areas and mobile number portability would also be introduced to enable the consumer to retain the same number while switching over to another service/operator. Chairman PTA said that Pakistan would be the first country in the region to implement such a regime. He told the Committee that efforts are also being made to introduce technology to control the mobile phone theft in the country.
The Members of the Committee appreciated the revolutionary steps taken by PTA for improving the telecommunication sector and suggested that the line rents and extra charges/taxes should be reduced so that more people could opt for various telecommunication services. The Committee suggested that the network of WLL should also be extended to the villages and rural areas of the country to connect these areas with other parts of the country.
The meeting was attended, besides the Chairperson of the Committee, Senator Mrs. Tanveer Khalid by Senators Mouhim Khan Baloch, Muhammad Abbas Komaili, Wasim Sajjad, Dr. Safdar Ali Abbasi and Kamran Murtaza. Minister (Incharge) for Cabinet Division, Dr. Sher Afghan Khan Niazi, Secretary Cabinet and senior officers of the Cabinet Division, PTA were also present in the meeting.