It seems that the appointment of the new Chairman of Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) has failed to settle all the controversies in the Authority as reportedly, Kamaluddin Tipu, the executive member appointed by the president on the advice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif only two years ago, is considering to challenge his unceremonious removal in a court of law, Pakistan Today has learnt reliably.
Tipu was transferred and directed to report to the Establishment Division.
The four-year tenure of Kamaluddin Tipu was set to expire on May 9, 2018. However, on December 23, the Establishment Division issued a letter, stating that Tipu had been transferred, and directed him to report to the Establishment Division with immediate effect. Pakistan Today has the copy of the transfer orders.
Under the law, the government has no authority to remove any officer serving against tenure posting and in such cases, government has to produce concrete evidence of misconduct before removing any such officer.
Tipu is a grade-21 officer of the Police Service of Pakistan and is well respected among his peers.
A source privy to the developments told Pakistan Today that a petition was being worked out to challenge the removal of Kamaluddin Tipu from PEMRA and the removal was likely to be challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) soon.
Before the appointment of Absar Alam as the new Chairman of PEMRA, Tipu was serving as acting chairman of the Authority.
However, the launch of process for issuing three licenses for Direct to Home (DTH) services generated considerable controversy and may have led to the unceremonious removal of Tipu from his post.
Predictably, after taking charge, Absar Alam directed to immediately postpone the bidding process of DTH licencing scheduled to be held on December 7.
This decision may jeopardize the immediate injection of millions of dollars in foreign direct investment in the country. Direct investment of $1 billion is expected in next three years after the award of three DTH licences.
PEMRA did not abide by the directions of Information Ministry for postponement of bidding process. Officials close to the developments said that only the mafia spreading illegal foreign content stood to gain from the postponement of the DTH licenses.
Earlier, the Information Ministry and PEMRA had entered into a spat over the DTH licencing bid, with the Ministry asking OGRA in increasingly stronger terms that it should cease the bidding process until the new PEMRA chief takes over.
The PEMRA had been dragging its feet telling the Information Ministry that the process had been going on for several months and that it could not be abandoned at this stage. But this just forced the Ministry to respond with sterner warnings and compliance directives. PEMRA refused to comply, but the new PEMRA chief took over at the last minute and shut down the process.
Tipu, who was a DIG in the police, spent some time on deputation in the United Nations Office to the African Union (UNOAU) until recently. In 2007, he held the office of general manager of PEMRA in Lahore. Tipu has also held important posts in the National Police Academy, Frontier Constabulary (FC) and National Motorways and Highways Police. He was also a member of Steering Committee on Human Rights and Gender issues of National Police Bureau where he was instrumental in developing the SOPs for dealing with women victims of violence and investigating crimes against women.
