ISLAMABAD, Dec. 23: The federal minister for IT and Telecom, Awais Ahmed Leghari, said the telecommunication sector would be deregulated from January 1, 2003 and the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will not issue licences till the formulation and implementation of deregulation policy.

Speaking at a seminar jointly organised by an English newspaper and Global Communication here on Monday, the minister said the PTA and the Frequency Allocation Board needed to be reconstructed for the better implementation of the policy.

Mr Leghari said the move was aimed at providing a ‘level- playing field’ to national and international private concerns with the objective of bringing the benefits of deregulation to the consumers in the form of reduced tariffs and improved services.

However, he refused to reveal any details of the proposed deregulation policy saying that he wanted the dialogues and discussions amongst all the parties concerned to conclude first. But, he hinted that the deregulation process would be in phases and the entry of pre-defined number of operators would be ensured and compliance with international standards for market operating would be followed.

He claimed that the ‘bureaucratic inertia’ in the PTCL had been done away with. “It is being ensured that an efficient human resource pool exists within the PTCL, which is fully cognizant of the dynamics of operating a company in a deregulated market and response to customer needs,” Mr Leghari said.

The PTCL chairman, Akhtar Ahmed Bajwa, said the ‘U-fone’ a leading GSM cellular telephone company was going to be the first one in the country to switch over to the Broad Band Technology. “This change may come in to effect by tomorrow to some extent,” Mr Bajwa said.

About the deregulation policy, the PTCL Chairman said it was bound to attract considerable investment from the private sector. At the same time, he said the WTO was an issue that needed to be looked into very carefully.

“Any country or company from around the world will be free to get a licence to operate in Pakistan like any other national company and that is where the WTO regime will monitor,” Mr Bajwa said.