Islamabad - The Supreme Court of
Pakistan Friday directed
the Federal Ministry of
Information Technology
and Telecommunication
to decide additional frequency spectrum to CMPak Limited within one
month.
A two-member bench
of the apex court comprising Justice Maqbool
Baqir and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah issued
these directions while
hearing the appeal of
CM-Pak Ltd against the
decision of the Islamabad High Court.
CM-Pak Ltd counsel
Muhammad Ali Raza informed the court that in
2014 Spectrum 3G & 4G
was auctioned on the direction of the Ministry of
Information Technology.
The federal government
fixed the price and the
auction was held by Pakistan Telecommunication
Authority (PTA), the regulatory body on April 25,
2014.
He stated that CM Pak
was awarded 10 Mhz
Spectrum as it was the
highest bidder and the
spectrum was sold to the
company at $306 million for 15 years starting
from April 25, 2014.
Raza argued that thereafter the company had
installed the equipment
and it informed the PTA
on June 9, 2014 that
there was interruption in
the frequency. In March
2016, the Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) offered additional frequency 5Mhz compensation
for two years with this
condition that either
they would clear the interruption or give alternate spectrum.
The counsel added
that in 2018 the FAB
admitted that the interruption could not be
cleared. Therefore, his
client approached the
PTA, which declined the
petition that additional
frequency 5Mhz cannot
be granted to the company.