PTA chairman likely to be appointed by the Federal cabinet today

The chairman for Pakistan Telecommunication authority will be appointed by the federal cabinet today. The decision to appoint the new chairman was postponed last week.

The decision to appoint the PTA chairman was postponed to Thursday, January 17th during last week’s meeting. The cabinet meeting is scheduled for today which will be attended by the Prime Minister, Imran Khan. The meeting will look into the summary of the Cabinet division for the appointment of chairman PTA among three likely candidates, Major Gen (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa (Member Technical), Dr. Khawar Saddique Khokhar (Member Compliance) and Mohammad Naveed (Member Finance).

All of these candidates are lobbying for the decorated post, however, things got a bit interesting when the PTA decided to consider other options for the seat of Chairman after deciding that Major Gen (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa (Member Technical) would be the chairman of PTA, since Member technical is historically elected as the chairman of PTA. However, as of now, all three members are being looked upon for the contested chairman seat and the cabinet will likely announce the decision today.

Previously, The former government, PML(N) appointed Mohammad Naveed as the Member Finance of PTA and was further given the additional post of chairman at that time. However, the federal cabinet in the last week of December approved the appointment of Major General (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa as Member Technical who was also a former Director General of Special Communication Organisation (SCO).

If past norms are to be given any preference, then Major Gen (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa is the most likely candidate for the seat, however, according to internal leaks members other than General (Retd) Amir Azeem Bajwa have successfully lobbied for the post and had a successful meeting with the Prime Minister Office. Well, we won’t have to wait for too long, since the federal cabinet will hopefully be announcing chairman PTA before the day is over.