3G Consultants Are About to Take Legal Action Against PTA

Consultants hired by the PTA Pakistan Telecommunication Authority for the purpose of 3G auction licenses have engaged lawyers in order to take legal action because there fees is not yet payed.None of them received any payment for the work we have done nor received any compensation for the expenses incurred in software development and travelling to Pakistan.

They claimed that they completed almost half of their task but at their own expense, including all expenses like staying in Pakistan, PTA did not confirm until 23 November 2012.Total amount payee by the PTA to these consultant is not that amount which was mentioned in their contract. Almost 10% of total amount was paid in the form of cheques later those cheques were even stopped by the PTA.they said that they have incurred sustainable expenses and not been paid penny for the work they have done.

Sajjad awan Director General Enforcement PTA Said:

[blockquote cite=”Consultants”] PTA has not receive any legal notice yet,When we receive the legal notice,we will respond.
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According to Awan PTA Chairman awarded contract to these three consultants according to the rules and regulations,but recently NAB had questioned this award. He said:

[blockquote align=”left”] Following these objections,the contract was annulled and work on 3G auction was stopped,despite the fact that it was awarded after approval of the auction supervisory committee headed by federal minister of finance.
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Statement was given by one of the consultant Martin Sims.

[blockquote align=”right”] This is cheque fraud, pure and simple, and punishable by a jail sentence under Pakistani law,” According to these consultants this behavior is not acceptable at all.
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This behavior and conduct is totally disgraceful and unacceptable from the public institute, which is responsible for maintaining perfect and exemplary reputation to avoid bad word of mouth when it comes to Pakistan whether at national or international level. Consultants want that PTA should make an effort to settle all this issue and compensate them .

The consultants have incurred substantial personal expenses and not been paid a penny for the work they have done. This act is not justified at all. When certain attempts were made to contact PTA representative they didn’t bother to listen them by ignoring this whole scenario and despite numerous attempts to contact the PTA no one has been willing to talk to them.

It claimed that the contract was void ab initio, a legal term meaning invalid at the outset. “That is something only a court can decide,” said Ward. “The PTA is legally obliged to honor contracts; it can’t appoint itself judge and jury and suddenly decide to pull out.”
PTA procedures are not just liable for the unpaid cost for the consultants but also for the whole legal cost which is related with the case. This is the one reason that whole action was delayed because of such poor management by PTA.

After such reaction from PTA consultants engaged Bhutta, Khan and Mir to recover the money.

Dr OB Nicholas from the Australian law firm Webb Henderson; Dennis Ward, the former spectrum auctioneer for the Canadian Spectrum Management Program; and Martin Sims from the spectrum specialists Policy Tracker; were given three month contracts by the PTA starting from 23 November 2012.

Even focusing on this auction procedure Dennis Ward said that:

[blockquote cite=”Ward”] The contract cancellation letter sent by the PTA was “ridiculous.There are many legal options available to us and we will be pursuing each of these in turn until the money we are owed is paid.
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It claimed that the contract was void ab initio, a legal term meaning invalid at the outset. “That is something only a court can decide,” said Ward. “The PTA is legally obliged to honor contracts; it can’t appoint itself judge and jury and suddenly decide to pull out.”
PTA procedures are not just liable for the unpaid cost for the consultants but also for the whole legal cost which is related with the case. This is the one reason that whole action was delayed because of such poor management by PTA.

DR OB Nicholas said;

[blockquote cite=”Nicholas”] The PTA is being cavalier with public money,Instead of adopting this ‘head in the sand’ approach it should make an arrangement to settle its debts and bring us back after the election to complete the auction.
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In previous statements consultants are looking for the way of settlement. in one of their statement they mentioned that:

[blockquote cite=”Nicholas”] We have no desire to take legal action against the Pakistani government or the PTA, Instead, we prefer to come to an amicable arrangement whereby we do the work that we were contracted to do at the price agreed and the people of Pakistan get the auction they paid for.
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But their chemistry is not stable and goals are not clear this is the reason Two members of PTA, Khawar Khokhar and Nasarul Karim Ghaznavi had refused to cooperate with their own chairman Farooq Awan for 3G auction on the grounds that the hiring of these consultants had violated the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority’s rules and The Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organization) Act.

They tried their best to negotiate with PTA when it comes to payment but after poor and disappointing behavior from PTA they finally decided to file case and take legal action against the PTA.But now they are looking for the payment for services delivered already.