Islamabad: Federal Minister for Information Technology & Telecom Mr. Qamar Zaman Kaira has said that his Ministry is determined to take all stake holders along to meet the challenges faced by the Telecom sector in the country.

The Minister said this while chairing a meeting during his visit to PTA Headquarters in Islamabad today. Chairman PTA, Major General (Retd) Shahzada Alam Malik briefed the Minister about the functions of PTA, regulatory initiatives and performance of the telecom sector.

The Minister said that in view of the ever changing global telecom scenario, both the Ministry and the Regulator should work out modalities for the future expansion of the telecom services to the people as well as for the introduction of new technologies in the country in order to fully exploit the true potential of the industry. He appreciated the role of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) in bringing about regulations for the uplift of telecom sector that has led to valuable exchequer to the Government as well as provision of quality and affordable services to the people of Pakistan. On the issue of verification of mobile antecedents, the minister instructed that a comprehensive strategy be formulated in the light of guidelines given by the Senate standing committee on interior that would also take into consideration the interest of all stakeholders.

Chairman PTA said owing to the investor- friendly policies of the Government and a fair regulatory regime adopted by PTA, Pakistanâ??s Telecom sector has been able to achieve unprecedented growth in recent years. He said the over all teledensity of the country stands at 56.70 percent which is highest in the region with the number of cell phone users having crossed 82 million.

Chairman PTA apprised the minister in detail about the implementation process of the Telecom Deregulation Policy through the award of new Telecom licenses that has resulted in attracting renowned global telecom players to invest in Pakistan. He also briefed the Minister about the challenges faced by the telecom sector and continued efforts of the regulator to address them. The meeting was also attended by the senior officers of PTA.

 

Nabiha Mahmood

Deputy Director (Public Relaltions)