GILGIT: Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Chairman retired Major General Hafeez Ur Rehman has said the federal government will hold a separate auction of 5G spectrum for Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) within months of the nationwide rollout.

He was speaking during a meeting with GB caretaker Minister for Information Technology Ghulam Abbas in Islamabad on Thursday to discuss the proposed auction and broader connectivity issues in the mountainous region.

Mr Abbas said GB must not lag behind other parts of the country in access to high-speed internet, stressing that impro­ved digital connectivity was vital for e-governance, online education, telemedicine and IT-based businesses. He noted that limited bandwidth and infrastructure gaps had constrained socio-economic development, particularly affecting youth, students, entrepreneurs and the tourism sector.

The PTA chairman said preparations for the auction of additional spectrum were underway. The authority has written to the GB Council, the AJK Council, and the Ministry of IT and Telecom to initiate groundwork for the regulatory framework in both regions.

He said technical testing, regulatory review and spectrum arrangements would require additional time, necessitating a separate auction for GB and AJK. “Our preference as regulator is that spectrum should be provided free of cost in GB and AJK so that operators can invest their capital expenditure in technical infrastructure,” Mr Rehman said.

Amir Shahzad, Director General (Licen­cing) at the PTA, suggested that the GB government follow AJK’s example by abolishing right-of-way (RoW) charges for telecom infrastructure. The federal government has already directed its departments and ministries to provide free access for IT and telecom fibre networks.

The AJK government recently waived RoW charges for IT-related infrastructure across several departments and introduced a one-window facility for no-objection certificates for telecom tower installation and fibre deployment. Applications will be processed by the relevant deputy commissioner’s office within 15 days, and failure to raise objections will be deemed approval.

Officials expect the measures to reduce delays and financial barriers, encouraging faster expansion of broadband infrastructure in AJK.

Mr Abbas told Dawn that he had asked the GB law department to brief him on the region’s RoW policy, adding that he supported abolishing such charges to accelerate internet penetration.

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2026