ISLAMABAD, Feb 26: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications on Wednesday conceded before National Assembly that performance of the PTCL was not upto the mark due to lack of professionalism and customer care services.

The minister was answering a query during the question hour session of the assembly.

However, he said the telecom ministry had conducted a study to upgrade the system and increase the number of transit exchanges for which about Rs535 million would be utilized.

He assured that the ministry would take steps to gradually improve the quality of service, but denied the allegations that customers could not get connected to other cities during peak hours.

He said long duration of congestion/non-availability of channels reflected degraded performance.

The government is considering to import a software for which a contract will be awarded in two to three months for rectifying billing problems and improving customer care services, he added. Answering a question about enhancing the time period of discounted tariff, the minister said only the organization’s independent board could decide about this issue.

On the occasion, the federal minister for labour, manpower and overseas Pakistanis, Abdul Sattar Laleka, informed the assembly that about 3.31 million unemployed people were present in the country.

The minister said the total unaudited net assets of Employees Old Age Benefit (EOB) upto June 30, 2002 were about Rs55 billion.

About steps being taken by the government to control unemployment in the country, he said small and medium enterprises sector was being developed, while investment was being made in increasing water resources.

Provision of micro credits through Khushali Bank, implementation of Khushal Pakistan programme, enhancement of technical/vocational training facilities, expansion of information technology through Pakistan poverty alleviation fund are also part of these strategies, he added. Meanwhile, the federal information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, said the government intended to grant more TV channel licenses in the private sector.

He said competition in electronic media would automatically improve the quality of TV programmes. Already six licences have been granted to private companies and the government is also taking steps to encourage print media to launch TV channels, he added.