ISLAMABAD, Jan 5: Information Technology Minister Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari on Thursday said the management of the Pakistan Telecommunication Company Limited (PTCL) would be handed over to Etisalat within next five to six weeks.

“The Cabinet Committee on Privatization (CCoP) is meeting on Friday to consider recommendations of the Privatization Board to accord a formal approval to the sale of this utility giant,” the minister said while speaking at a news conference held to mark the celebrations on addition of five million subscribers to the company’s network.

President Ufone, Babar A Khan and PTCL President Junaid Iqbal Khan were also present on the occasion.

The telecom sector is in the midst of a revolution with overall mobile phone subscribers base already touching 20 million mark and registering a 10-fold increase in the customers base which only a couple of years ago stood at 2.8 million, he observed.

Mr Leghari admitted that the privatization of PTCL had hit some snags as every large transaction usually faces problems. He, however, confirmed that all issues had been resolved keeping in view the interests of the stakeholders and the people of the country.

“I am hopeful that the new management will bring along a better environment and will create healthy competition in the market besides, being able to take market share in a much more aggressive manner,” he said.

Making basic public services such as phone, power and gas available to the people at affordable rates is the cornerstone of President Pervez Musharraf’s vision and he is glad that his ministry has been able to fulfil this vision in the telecom sector where telephone facility is no longer out of reach of even a street vendor, the minister said.

Mr Leghari said Ufone, a subsidiary of the PTCL, had grown tremendously during the last 18 months, adding more than 4.3 million new subscribers in the process, but company’s progress was affected considerably by the delay in the PTCL privatization process. The company suffered because it faced problems in placing additional orders and implementing its expansion plans because of the delay in the transition after the privatization, he said.

However, he believed that there was still a huge scope for growth and according to some conservative estimates the mobile phone sector was likely to register 40 million subscribers within the next two to three years.

He said the ministry was also working aggressively in collaboration with the telecom industry and the regulators to increase mobile phones portability and check incidents of thefts of instruments. Besides, the government is also considering extending beyond April 2005, the tenure of mobile companies to operate in Azad Kashmir.

The AJK government has also approached his ministry and Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to help them put in place a policy framework to enable these companies to extend their services to Azad Kashmir as well.

“We have almost finalized the job but a final decision on the issue would be taken by the AJK Council headed by the prime minister, he said.