Expressing its concern over deteriorating standards and poor quality service of a number of telecom companies, the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunications has called for protection of rights of the consumers.
“Growth of telecom sector is important, but consume satisfaction is more important”, it added. The Committee, which at the Parliament House Monday under the Chairmanship of Senator Muhammad Idrees Khan Safi, observed that the telecom companies are making windfall profits but paying little attention to improving service quality especially in the rural and far flung areas of the country. As a result, it said people are facing a lot of difficulties.
It directed the PTA to play its regulatory role forcefully, and with conviction to address the outstanding issues especially those relating to service quality. The Committee also instructed that SIM registration/verification process must be carried out vigilantly to avoid any misuse.
The Committee also held the view that the PTCL ever since its privatisation, by and large, has been unable to come up to the expectations of the people and the service quality is leaving much to be desired. It was also observed that the provincial/regional job quota requirements enforced by the government are also not being complied with. The Committee expressed its concern over large scale sacking of trained employees including engineers having more than 20 years of service, and attributed this trend to falling standards of service. Earlier, the Committee was given a detailed briefing on the budget of all the relating organisations of telecommunications i.e.
Mobile companies/PTCL etc., budget of all the relating organisations of Information Technology and the policy of SIM registration process. Secretary IT Ministry requested the Senate Body to extend its support to the Ministry so that it must have a regular budget instead of project based budget for its better performance as a public sector entity. He said that it has a mandate to convert present mode of government into E-mode, but does not have the capacity due to various limitations. The meeting was attended among others by Senators Syed Fisal Raza Abidi, Muhammad Azam Khan Swati, Muhammad Zahid Khan, Pervaiz Rashid and Fauzia Fakhar-uz-Zaman; besides IT secretary and senior officials of the ministry.
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