Ufone Faces Heat as NA Panel Flags Poor Service, PTCL’s $800m Dues. Pakistan’s National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Ufone’s deteriorating network performance, while also questioning why its parent company, PTCL, had yet to clear $800 million in outstanding government dues.
Read More: PTCL Flash Fiber surpasses 900,000 subscribers, reinforcing leadership in Pakistan’s fiber broadband market
Chairing the meeting, Syed Amin Ul Haque said consumers had suffered enough because of poor mobile services and demanded immediate accountability from both the operator and the regulator.
The committee unanimously expressed serious concern over Ufone’s worsening Quality of Service (QoS), with members describing the operator’s network as one of the weakest in the country.
Committee member Mahesh Kumar said Ufone’s service in Karachi had become “extremely poor,” while several lawmakers warned that the proposed Telenor-Ufone merger could further deteriorate service standards if existing shortcomings were not addressed first.
Taking a hard line, Chairman Amin Ul Haque directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to move beyond routine warnings and initiate stricter enforcement against operators that repeatedly fail to meet Quality of Service benchmarks.
The committee recommended that telecom companies violating service standards should first face show-cause notices, followed by financial penalties, and if performance still fails to improve, their operating licences should be suspended.
The chairman also criticised PTCL, stating that despite the government holding a 67% stake in the company, PTCL had yet to pay nearly $800 million owed to the government, calling the situation unacceptable.
Lawmakers also questioned the practice of telecom operators obtaining stay orders against PTA penalties, with Amin Ul Haque saying the recently established Telecom Tribunal should now be used to ensure regulatory action is effectively enforced.
Federal IT Minister Shaza Fatima Khawaja acknowledged that prolonged electricity load shedding had affected telecom infrastructure but stressed that operators were still responsible for maintaining acceptable service standards. She said the government was working to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply for telecom towers.
In a stern directive, the committee summoned PTML (Ufone) officials to appear before its next meeting to explain the continued decline in network performance and present a concrete roadmap for improving services.
The committee made it clear that repeated excuses would no longer be tolerated, warning that telecom operators failing to improve service quality could face the toughest regulatory action available under the law, including suspension of their operating licences.
