Islamabad (MEDIA)
Without getting the go-ahead from the PM who is the incharge minister for the Ministry of Information & Technology, the Federal Minister Mr. A. Rehman Malik seems to take over the charge of this ministry too keeping his very own ministry intact.
Record shows that by utilizing the authority, Mr. Rehman Malik who is Federal Minister for Interior has overshadowed the IT & Telecom Ministry by implementing decisions without keeping the ministry (of IT & Telecom) officials in loop. Recently he has headed three separate meetings in which he independently took the decisions on behalf of the ministry of IT & Telecom. It may be recalled here that Prime Minister of Pakistan Raja Pervez Ashraf is currently incharge minister for the Ministry of Information & Technology since the minister for this portfolio is yet to be appointed.
On Friday late night, Yawar Yaseen, DG Enforcement PTA directed the telecom operators through email to suspend their service in almost 15 major cities of Pakistan. The interesting point to ponder is that the email generated by the said official didn’t carry any reference from the Ministry of IT or any other ministry. As a result, this suspension not only barred telecom companies to earn millions, but also irked general users to remain out of contact for more than 14 hours.
While talking to Daily Jang on Friday evening, Chairman PTA Farooq Awan said, ‘So far no directions have been issued in this regard’. ‘We will take action once we receive clear directions from the Ministry of IT & Telecom’, he maintained. However on the same day, the officials of the ministry were found totally uninformed about any development regarding suspension of telecom service. According to the telecom act, Ministry of IT & Telecom itself is bound to issue policy directives in such cases, said a telecom expert. 