ISLAMABAD: The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) Rawalpindi on Tuesday filed a Reference in the accountability court against Javed Feroz, Shahid Feroz and six other directors of Pakcom Ltd (Instaphone) in the matter of willful default by the company on account of license renewal fee.
As per details, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on April 15, 2005, gave option to Pakcom (Ltd) of either switching to Global System for Mobile (GSM) with 10 + 10 Mhz frequency bands OR Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) with 7.38 + 7.38 Mhz frequency bands. Pakcom (Ltd) selected CDMA and signed the license .
The first installment of license fee amounting $14.55 million was paid on April 18, 2005.
In 2005, Millicom (foreign investor) was the major shareholder of Pakcom which left Pakistan and sold its shares to remaining directors of Pakcom to Javed Feroz and 6 others. In 2006, Pakcom provided an undertaking to PTA that all the liabilities would be borne by them. Pakcom thereafter defaulted on subsequent payments of installments in lieu of license fee and were issued show cause notices by PTA.
PTA provided considerable time period for payment of outstanding liabilities from 2006 to 2008, however, upon failure, Pakcom’s license was terminated by PTA on January 3, 2008.
Pakcom Limited (Instaphone) failed to comply with financial obligations in accordance with the terms and conditions contained in the license and it failed to make the payment of outstanding dues.
NAB Rawalpindi Director General Irfan Naeem Mangi said that NAB officers under the leadership of NAB Chairman Justice Javaid Iqbal are determined and committed to performing their national duty with absolute objectivity, thorough professionalism, and unimpeachable integrity and without any leanings for or against anybody. He said NAB is striving hard to recover the looted wealth and huge defaults of government dues from the swindlers.
