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| June 15, 2005 | Wednesday | Jumadi-ul-Awwal 7, 1426 |
38,000 more telephone lines for AJK soon
MUZAFFARABAD, June 14: At least 38,000 more telephone lines will be added to the existing 70,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) by the end of the current fiscal year with the commissioning of 16 new and extension of 15 existing exchanges, a senior official of the Special Communications Organization (SCO) told Dawn here on Monday.
Col Khurshid Zafar Zaidi, SCO sector commander for AJK, said another 20 exchanges would be established in the next financial year to create 30,000 more lines and the increase would help the organization meet 90 per cent of the demand from the areas concerned.
Col Zaidi asserted that the SCO — a subsidiary of the Pakistan army enjoying monopoly in the telecom sector in AJK and Northern Areas — did not have any commercial or monetary interests but its sole objective was to provide maximum and latest telecom facilities to the public at the cheapest rates.
Of the SCO’s mobile service, named as SCOM, he said that a Chinese telecommunication firm, ZTE Corporation, had gifted 5,000 GSM lines and the associated ‘Intelligent Network’ to President Gen Pervez Musharraf in September 2002 for its installation in AJK.
He said that of these lines, 3,300 were allotted in Muzaffarabad alone and the rest in southern Mirpur district. He further said that the system was commissioned in May last year.
He admitted that the service had some flaws, including limited coverage. He, however, said that it was being upgraded with the addition of 50,000 more lines and a contract in this regard had been signed with another Chinese firm, Huawei.
He said that the new system would be operational by the end of July as the installation of GSM equipment in 14 AJK towns had been completed while work in the 16 remaining towns was going on.
He claimed that SCOM would be able to cover 70 to 80 per cent of the area in the AJK by the end of July and with the passage of time it would improve further.
The SCOM connections allotted in AJK will also be able to cover the Northern Areas, he added.
He said that the SCO was getting funds for its projects from the Federal Ministry of Information Technology which had pledged to provide additional money for development of the telecom network in AJK.
He said that under the government rules and audit procedure the recovery of bills was SCO’s responsibility but the money collected under that head was lesser than what the organization was spending in AJK to develop the telecom sector.
He said that the revenue generated in the AJK was going to the federal kitty, excluding the central excise duty and the advance income tax which were being transferred to the coffers of the AJK government and the AJK Council respectively.
He said the SCO was giving equal importance to big cities and remote rural areas, and added that if private companies were allowed to invest in AJK they would restrict themselves to the profitable areas only while ignoring the rest.
Furthermore, he said, decrease in income would consequently lessen the allocation of funds by the IT ministry for development of the telecom network in AJK, particularly in the remote areas.
GOVT VEHICLES: The AJK government has ordered pre-qualification of automobile workshops and spare parts dealers after reports that the national exchequer suffers a loss of Rs4-5 million every year under the head of maintenance of official vehicles, Dawn learnt from reliable sources.
Around Rs70 million are earmarked every year for maintenance of vehicles allotted to ministers, advisers heads of legislative assembly committees, chief secretary office and services and general administration department. The central transport pool is authorised arrange maintenance. Of Rs70 million, Rs 2.5 million are directly placed at the disposal of a transport officer whereas the remaining amount is managed by a deputy secretary and accountant of the S&GAD. The DS is also drawing and disbursing officer of ministries.
Under the relevant rules, these vehicles holders have to obtain a ‘technical report’ from the transport officer who identifies parts needing repair or replacement in their vehicles and issues a no-objection certificate (NOC) if the work is to be done by an automobile workshop.
The rules also clearly say that competitive bids must be invited from the interested auto dealers or workshops through newspaper advertisements for any purchase or overhaul.
However, for long these rules are being violated, as the S&GAD and CTP officials prefer to issue direct supply orders to automobile dealers and workshops of their choice. These dealers and workshops allegedly offer them fixed kickbacks and charge high prices due to which the exchequer suffers a loss of Rs4-5 million every year, said sources.
Following reports in a section of press, the government has ordered that firms interested in supply of spare parts or repair and overhaul of vehicles should be pre-qualified so as to check any shady deals.
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