ISLAMABAD, March 10: Federal Minister for Information Technology and Telecommunications Awais Leghari has said it is not possible to estimate how many employees of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) will be affected due to the company's privatization , as the process has not been finalized.

In a written reply to a question of Dr Ataur Rehman, the minister told the National Assembly on Wednesday that the steps for the rehabilitation of PTCL employees to be affected due to privatization would be decided once their exact number and categories were determined.

In another written reply to a question of MNA Asif Tauseef, the minister told the House that the government was endeavouring to extend the Ufone coverage to as many cities as possible.

He said cities were selected using multiple criteria, which included commercial viability, size of population, existing competition, lease line cost and synergy with those cities, where Ufone service was already available.

He said expansion of cellular infrastructure was both time and resource intensive. Being the new entrant in the cellular market, Mr Leghari said, the Ufone was developing its network through phased expansion.

Replying to specific questions regarding launching of mobile service in Sargodha, Murree and Chakwal, the minister said the service availability to the cities was planned under phase-III network expansion and the contract for this phase had already been signed on October 29, 2003. Launching of Ufone service in Sargodha, Murree and Chakwal was expected in April, May and June respectively.

He said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had started the process for award of two new licences for which bidding would take place on April 14.

The minister said at present the number of Ufone subscribers was 555,874. Out of the total subscribers, he said, 187,007 were in Karachi, 143,892 in Lahore, 110,960 in Islamabad, 27,716 in Peshawar, 14,766 in Gujranwala, 10,933 in Sialkot, 10,460 in Faisalabad, 9,154 in Gujrat, 8,803 in Quetta, 8,581 in Kohat, 8,058 in Hyderabad, 7,463 in Jhelum, 6,640 in Multan and 1,437 in Sukkur.

Mr Leghari said there were 80 districts of the country, where U-fone service was not available. Out of the 80 districts, he said, 25 were in the Punjab, 21 each in Balochistan and NWFP and 13 in Sindh. Following are the districts where Ufone facility is not available:

PUNJAB: Attock, Bahawal-nagar, Bahawalpur, Bhakkar, Chakwal, D G Khan, Hafizabad, Jhang, Kasur, Khanewal, Khushab, Layyah, Lodhran, Mandi Bahauddin, Mianwali, Muzaffargarh, Narowal, Okara, Pak Pattan, Rahim Yar Khan, Rajanpur, Sahiwal, Sargodha, Toba Tek Singh and Vehari.