ISLAMABAD: In response to observations made during a meeting of a subcommittee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a spokesperson for Jazz said the merger of Jazz-Warid fulfilled all statutory and regulatory requirements and the same was duly endorsed by the authorities concerned a few years ago.

He also claimed that all relevant rules were followed for strict compliance.

On Jan 29, during a meeting of the PAC subcommittee, a representative of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the lawmakers that an inquiry regarding irregularities and financial benefits taken due to the merger of Warid and Mobilink was in its final stage and arrest of some personalities will also be made in coming days. The committee, chaired by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, was discussing an audit report of the telecommunication sector for the year 2015-16.

There was an agenda item, “Loss to public exchequer due to illegal usage of 4G LTE (long-term evolution) services by M/s Warid - Rs51.69 billion ($516 million).”

A representative of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) said at the time of launch of 3G, Warid did not participate in an auction to get licence but later offered the service as it had spectrum.

“At that time, Warid had spectrum and Mobilink had 3G due to which both benefited due to the merger as Warid used 3G and Mobilink used spectrum,” he said.

Though Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman retired Maj Gen Amir Azeem Bajwa spoke in favour of the companies, NAB’s Director Operations Ghazi Rehman requested the chairperson that NAB should also be invited to the next meeting.

“We have been investigating the issue that after merger both Warid and Mobilink facilitated each other as both lacked some services/facilities which were available with other company. The inquiry is at the last stage and some personalities will be arrested in case of irregularities soon,” he said.

According to a statement issued by a PR company on Sunday, a spokesperson for Jazz in a statement said all regulations were followed and Jazz commits to radical transparency.

“Jazz is not only a business but is the leading corporate citizen of Pakistan striving for a Digital Pakistan and helping talent grow. The leading digital company serves 60 million Pakistanis with connectivity,” he said.

Published in Dawn, February 3rd, 2020