Minister for Information Technology Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Tuesday said three of the six mobile phone companies operating in the country had launched their service in Muzaffarabad and other parts of Azad Kashmir following the government decision to allow them outreach to these areas.
"The response from the mobile operators has been forthcoming which bespeaks the spirit shown by the Ministry of Information Technology in putting up the proposal to open up Azad Kashmir for mobile companies to roll out their services," he said while chairing a meeting in the ministry to review rehabilitation of telecommunication system in the quake-hit areas.
He said the ministry was aware of the importance of a reliable telecommunication network in the disaster zone and consequently proposed to the Prime Minister to allow mobile companies to operate in Azad Kashmir for a period of two months given the urgency of the situation.
"We assure the mobile companies and other telecom operators we shall do all we can to promote their interests and boost their businesses through a participatory consultative process," he said, adding the telecom operators were keen to avail of this opportunity offered even for a short period.
Awais said the government decision to allow mobile companies an access to AJK had the full backing of the president who was keen to improve telecom services in the region. "The idea behind this move is to prove a parallel communication network given the vast damage done to the infrastructure of highways, link roads and telecommunication," he said.
He said the Ministry of Information Technology had also directed PTCL to hand over 100 satellite PCOs to the Federal Relief Commissioner for installation in the quake-hit areas. "This facility would be offered free of cost to the people in the disaster zone," he added.
The minister said the government had also taken the initiative of opening up membership for private telecom operators in the in the international intergovernmental organisations like International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Asia Pacific Tele-community (APT) within their charter. "Pakistan would be the first such country to offer its private telecom operators an opportunity to interact with world's leading telecom organisations," he said.
He said the government had taken this decision to help the private telecom operators contribute towards the information society drive through policy formulation process at regional and international level besides becoming part of international standardisation process to underpin future opportunities offered by international bodies.
"This will also help our companies to build their human resource profile by availing training opportunities offered by international bodies as well as gain privileged access to restricted first-hand information highly valuable for business planning," he added.