The attached departments of Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication are being run on ad hoc basis, hampering its performance in execution of important projects, it is learnt. The matters at the IT&T attached departments are left at the mercy of several officers who have been holding dual positions since long, negatively affecting official work, ministry sources revealed.
"The posts of managing director of the Telephone Industries of Pakistan (managing director Telecom Foundation, chief executive officer (CEO) Universal Service Fund (USF) and CEO National Information and Communication Technology, Research and Development (ICT R&D) Fund have been vacant since long and they are being run on ad hoc basis.
Syed Khalid Ali Raza Gardezi, Joint Secretary (Admin), has been holding the additional charge of MD Telephone Industries of Pakistan's since long however, the situation is dismal. Telephone Industries of Pakistan's has become non-functional as its annual revenue has gone down drastically to about Rs 20 million from Rs 700 million in recent past, officials sources revealed.
" Telephone Industries of Pakistan's is a state owned enterprise (SOE) currently running in losses and draining an average Rs 500 million a year for salary support. It is currently on the privatisation agenda of the federal government. The current challenges being faced by the company included obsolescence of machinery, plants and skill base, intense competition in the telecom sector (especially vendor market), legacy public sector culture of entire workforce, and above all heavy burden of labour salaries (up to Rs 600 million annually)," the sources said.
The Senate Standing Committee on IT recently expressed its annoyance over the affairs of Telephone Industries of Pakistan's and repeatedly directed the management to resolve its outstanding financial and land/properties issues on urgent basis. Telephone Industries of Pakistan's has 2,415 kanals of land, but only 432 kanals are in its possession, while 611 kanals are currently with NRTC and remaining land is controlled by PTCL.
Additional Secretary IT Ministry Muhammad Aftab has been holding the additional charge of managing director Telecom Foundation (TF) since July as per the official website. However, the respective official is yet to be hired.
After the contract expiry of CEO USF Faisal Sattar, Haaris M Chaudhary CFO and Company Secretary is holding the acting charge. Since January 22, 2016, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Syed Ismail Shah has been given the additional charge of interim chief of the National Information and Communication Technology, Research and Development (ICT R&D) Fund.
Dr Ismail Shah is looking after the matters of ICT R&D Fund, an autonomous body responsible for research and development in the country. ICT R&D Fund is currently backlogged with tons of projects that have not been concluded or funded for years due to unavailability of a proper CEO.
ICT R&D Fund pockets an annual budget of Rs 2 billion however only 96 projects have been funded since the fund was incorporated almost a decade ago. Success rate in these funded projects is low, which clearly indicates the under-performance of ICT R&D Fund. ICT R&D fund is also aiming to play a key role in establishment of start-up ecosystem through its Tech City incubation centre.
When contacted, spokesperson of Information Technology and Telecom Ministry confirmed that the posts of MD Telephone Industries of Pakistan's, MD TF and CEO USF are lying vacant and the process for filling these posts has been initiated. However, according to him, CEO ICT R&D has been appointed recently.
Neither the ministry nor the ICT R&D has issued any statement about the appointment and there is nothing available on its website as well. This scribe also tried to get Ismail Shah's comment, but he did not respond to text message sent to him.
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