LAHORE, June 26: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has taken serious notice of a cell phone company’s decision to terminate the licences of 160 franchises and asked it to ‘justify’ the move.

In a notice issued to the CmPak, the PTA said: “Since the authority’s determination and its standard operating procedures (SOP) have been taken as one of the major grounds for depriving almost 160 families of their legitimate source of income, you are directed to justify and establish the ground of termination before it (authority) within seven days of issuance of the notice by providing record sufficient to prove the alleged violation of all the franchises individually”.

The authority also directed a senior officer of the company to appear before it in person if it failed to substantiate the decision through record.

The PTA maintained: “No response to the notice within specified time shall be taken in violation of the authority’s directives”.

The CmPak had not renewed the licences of 160 Paktel franchises across the country early this year for failing to meet the ‘set criterion’ of the company besides the PTA’s direction regarding selling of SIMs.

There were a total of 160 franchises of Paktel before the China Mobile acquired the 100 per cent shares of Paktel from Millicom last year. After acquiring Paktel, the CmPak applied for the change of name from Paktel to CmPak which was subsequently approved by the PTA and now the CmPak has launched a new brand name, Zong.

According to the owner of a Paktel franchise, the local management of China Mobile had terminated the licence on the pretext of “not achieving the target and observing the PTA directions regarding the sale of SIMs”. He said they had ‘strictly’ followed the PTA directions and the subscribers’ base had crossed two million mark owing to their ‘sheer hard work’.

He said each such franchise had to face at least Rs5 million loss because of the management’s decision. “Their whole investment is at stake. The company did not allow us to sell Zong SIMs where they are being sold along the road in different points of the province”.