Govt establishes specialised tribunal for Pakistan’s telecom sector

The interim government has established a specialised tribunal i.e. Telecommunication Appellate Tribunal to resolve legal issues related to Pakistan’s telecom sector speedily.

Caretaker Information Technology (IT) Minister Dr Umar Saif announced the development in a video message on Thursday. “We have established a specialized telecom tribunal, which would help resolve their cases much faster,” said the interim minister in a message on social media platform X.

“It was a long-standing demand of the telecom sector, that their court cases and disputes were resolved on a fast-track basis,” said Dr Saif. “Due to these issues companies in the telecom sector were unable to make key decisions including investments and expansion of operations.”

The government believes the establishment of the tribunal will help lower the burden on high courts concerning the adjudication of technical matters.

The caretaker minister said that a notification in this regard has been issued.

He shared that amendments in the Telecom Act have been approved by the President.

“In the absence of parliament, the tribunal will work under the Presidential Ordinance,” said the minister.

Sharing the technical details, the caretaker minister said that the Ministry of Law will nominate the tribunal’s chairperson and members as per the ordinance.

The chairperson of the tribunal can only be a High Court judge or a lawyer with 15 years of experience. Moreover, the telecom tribunal shall have 2 technocrats as members. The number can be increased or decreased as per requirement.

“The tribunal will be bound to decide within 90 days on the appeal against the decision of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA ),” said Dr Saif.

Last month, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) constituted a single portal committee for operationalising arrangements required for the launch of a single portal for filing sales tax returns of the telecom sector in all tax jurisdictions.