The federal government has appointed Major-General Amir Azeem Bajwa (retd) as new chairman of Pakistan Telecommuni-cation Authority (PTA). The Cabinet Division Tuesday issued a notification to this affect which stated, "The federal government is pleased to appoint Major General Amir Azeem Bajwa (retd), (member technical) as chairman Pakistan Telecom-munication Authority (PTA), under Cabinet Division with immediate effect and until further orders."
Bajwa has been appointed for a term of four years which is extendable for a second one of another four years. The PTA had been functioning on ad hoc basis for the over one year and some important matters, including renewal of operators' licences and implementation of telecom policy in letter and spirit are pending.
The federal cabinet, in the last week of December approved the appointment of Major Gen Bajwa (retd) - former director general Special Communication Organisation (SCO) as member technical and Dr Khawar Saddique Khokhar as member compliance. The previous government of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had appointed Mohammad Naveed as member finance of PTA and was given the additional charge of chairman.
All the three members including Major General Amir Azeem Bajwa (retd) (Member Technical), Dr Khawar Saddique Khokhar (Member Compliance) and Mohammad Naveed (Member Finance) were reportedly lobbying for the chairmanship slot, which had been lying vacant since November 2017. As witnessed in the past, member technical was appointed as the chairman. The federal cabinet met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair on January 17, 2019 where a summary of the Cabinet Division for the appointment of chairman PTA amongst the three members was considered. The federal cabinet approved the appointment of Bajwa as the new chairman of PTA and finally a notification to this effect was issued here on Tuesday.
Bajwa earlier served as director general SCO - a military-run telecommunication organisation which is providing services in Azad Jammu & Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. Azeem Bajwa, HI (M), (Colonel Commandant of the Corps of Signals) retired on November 16, 2017 from Pakistan Army. The new PTA chairman has a hectic agenda ahead including renewal of licences of three mobile operators, implementation of telecom policy as well as implementation of the cyber crime law in letter and spirit.