ISLAMABAD ( MEDIA )
‘’The finance minister Ishaq Dar is very angry so much so that he wants to call off the auction if we are so embarrassingly offtar get’ said an official on his team who declined to be beidentified as he is not authorized to speak officially on the matter. The Reuters claimed.
Pakistan is set to hold long-awaited auction for 3G/4G network licenses on April 23 to raise $2 billion for foreign reserves. Butt officials say there has been scant intrest in bidding process and estimate Pakistan will get not more than $850 million.
The reuters wrote that bidding closed on Monday only four out of five celluler mobile companies in Pakistan had submitted bid and no new company showed interest. Mobilink and Zong bid for 10 MHz. Telenor and Ufone both bid for 5 MHz.
Bid for 4G LTE licenses were to start at $ 210 million, No operator bid for 4G LTE.
The disappointing will be pile futher pressure on embattled Information Technology Minister Anusha Rehman who is overseeing the auction.
She drew criticism last month after appointing her husband to the Board of Director at Ufone one of the companies bidding for licenses and party owned by the government. He later resgned.
Pakistan Telecom Authority source claimed with telecoalert.com that the position take by Reuters is completely wrong. The auction is going as per expectations and things are rolling smoothly.