Government to Privatize Telephone Industry of Pakistan

The government has included Telephone Industry of Pakistan (TIP) to the privatization list, which is incurring millions of losses to the national exchequer annually. This was revealed before the National Assembly Standing committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication which met with Ali Khan Jadoon in the chair here on Monday.

Committee chairman asked why the land of TIP is not being used in Haripur. On which the IT Ministry officials informed the committee that TIP has been included to the privatization list. Secretary said that a plan is under consideration under which land would be allocated for mobile manufacturing units in the TIP land.

Government to Privatize Telephone Industry of Pakistan

The committee was further informed that the government will formally start negotiation with EXIM Bank of Korea for the establishment of Technology Park in Islamabad at an estimated cost of $88.383 million.

The government is expecting to get a loan amounting to $76.31 million from the Economic Development Cooperation Fund (EDCF) from EXIM Bank of Korea @ 0.1 percent for 40 years with 10 years grace period.

The committee was further informed that around 81 percent work of the boundary wall has been completed on Technology Park in Islamabad, while places would be identified for building countrywide such parks. Earlier people went to courts and were not ready to vacate the land, due to which project was delayed. The project was approved in 2013, however, it is expected that the boundary wall project would be completed by end June 2019. The committee decided to write a letter to the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for cooperation in this regard.

Recently a parliamentary panel was informed that consultant procurement would be completed next month after which the project design would be completed in six months while the overall project is expected to be completed in 44 months.

Secretary MoITT Marood Afzal said that there are five IT parks in Rawalpindi/Islamabad and eight in Lahore and Karachi. Regard the IT parks a study project has been planned. There was a land issue for IT park in Balochistan, however, the Balochistan IT Board has procured land for the purpose. It was informed that that experience was software parks in different buildings were not successful.

The committee observed one-minute of silence to express their sorrow over the terrorists’ attacks in Sri Lanka.

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Fizza Atique

Fizza Atique is a Tech writer specializing in the intersection of tech and culture. She likes photography, VR, electronic music, coffee, and baking.

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