The Supreme Court sought explanation on Wednesday from the secretary finance within 24 hours on withdrawing Rs 42 billion from the universal support fund (USF) through an executive order.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry was hearing the case of awarding 3G licenses.
The Supreme Court also directed the attorney general office to seek comprehensive report pertaining to all the development on the issuance of 3G licenses from the ministry of information technology.
The chief justice observed that awarding 3G licenses would generate substantial amount of revenue to the national exchequer and no delay would be permitted.
The court also issued notices to the secretaries cabinet and finance regarding alleged delay in awarding 3G licenses.
Ali Raza, counsel for the petitioner, informed the bench that despite SC’s clear directions to the IT ministry some eight months ago for submitting its reply within 10 days, no response had yet been received by the department.
Raza further told the court that the ministry of finance had withdrawn 44 billion rupees from universal services funds through an executive order. On this, Justice Jawwad S Khawaja remarked that how the government could withdraw funds from universal services funds as it had no prerogative for doing so.
The counsel also informed the court that the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) was lacking a chairman and members of the board for the last eight months.
The chief justice showed his resentment over the non-appointment of chairman and members of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) saying how the organisation was being run without its head and executive body. It further directed the federation to complete formation of the board and its chairman as soon as possible.
Ali Raza informed the bench that the PTA employees were facing financial crisis as they had not been paid salaries by the department for the last couple of months.
Justice Jawwad S Khawaja showed disappointment over vacant posts of high officials in the PTA and remarked that no one seemed interested in the department.
The CJ remarked that transparency must be observed in bidding of 3G licenses otherwise it would be deferred by the court.
The court adjourned further hearing till today (Thursday).
