A three-member bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan headed by Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar on Thursday was informed that M/s Paktel, a cellular company has settled down the issue with Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) regarding conversion fee of its system from AMPS to EGSM in Pakistan.
The Apex court comprising Justice Faqir Muhammad Khokhar, Justice Mian Shakirullah Jan and Justice M.Javed Buttar disposed of the case when counsel of M/s Paktel, Barrister Abdul Hafeez Pirzada informed the court about settlement between M/s Paktel and PTA.
The counsel of M/s Paktel did not give details about negotiations held with PTA over the issue.
According to the case details, M/s Paktel had filed a petition against Pakistan PTA and challenged its notification for depositing $38.8 million with the authority for the conversion of system AMPS to EGSM in the Lahore High Court Rawalpindi Bench, Rawalpindi.
The august court dismissed the appeal filed by M/s Paktel against the order of Director General (Licensing), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) dated July 10, whereby the company was allowed to shift from AMPS to EGSM subject to deposit of a sum of US $38.8 million.
It may be pointed out that M/s Paktel had sought permission from the authority to convert its system from AMPS to EGSM and after the announcement of Cellular Mobile Policy, the existing licenses were allowed to get their licenses renewed on the terms and conditions applicable to the two new cellular mobile operators ie M/s Telenor and M/s Warid Telecom.
It is also the requirement of the policy that existing licenses shall pay the same frequency spectrum price as determined in the auction of two new cellular mobile licenses.
In that auction the spectrum price was determined to the tune of $291 million and the existing cellular mobile licenses were required to pay the same amount.
PTA, as per policy, determined that M/s Paktel should pay $38.8 million to migrate from AMPS to EGSM. Orders of the Director General (Licensing) were communicated to M/s Paktel which challenged by the Company in the LHC.
According to PTA, under the Pakistan Telecommunication Re-Organisation Act 1996, the decision of the officers of the Authority can be challenged as appeal before the higher authorities of PTA. The learned counsels for the respondent raised the objection before the LHC that in the light of Section 7(2), the appeal was not maintainable. The court upheld the order of the DG (Licensing) and dismissed the petition filed by M/s Paktel.
On the request of Abdul Hafeez Pirzada, the apex court disposed of the case filed by the Management of M/s Paktel against the LHC Rawalpindi bench judgement in the Supreme Court of Pakistan terming the decision of the High Court as impugned judgement.
When a senior official of PTA, Ghulam Qadir was contacted in this regard, he confirmed about the settlement between M/s Paktel and PTA and said details were being worked out between the counsels of both the parties.