Pemra officers issue rejoinder with details, evidence, documents
ISLAMABAD: Pemra Officers strongly responded on Sunday to allegations leveled against them, especially against the legal wing of the authority, with strong evidence and references of law and documents.
Pemra Officers Welfare Association (POWA) has issued following Press Release on Sunday which is being published after deleting names: “It is welcoming that finally Pemra management has recognised the existence of Pemra Officers Welfare Association (Powa) but with a heavy heart.
“In continuation of our previous press releases Powa would like to unveil and mention the favouritism, nepotism and corrupt practices going on in Pemra un-noticed. Whilst the practice of ignoring rules and regulations continues by the incumbent chairman, in one such incidence, while serving as federal secretary had opted for the monetisation policy of the government and thus been receiving Rs95,000/- per month in lieu of an official car whilst using many official cars, at the same time, thus defeating the whole purpose of monetisation policy.
After becoming Chairman, he continued receipt of this amount, despite using a new car, till his retirement in BS-22, in April, 2013. Soon after he became the Chairman, he purchased a new 1800cc Honda Civic car for himself on a two days’ notice (although Pemra had a sufficient number of cars already).
The car was purchased after payment of “own” (price higher than the actual factory price for immediate delivery) from a dealer in Sialkot on such a short notice in sheer violation of PPRA rules. It may also be noted that as per government policy, the government officials (in BS 22 or MP-1) are allowed to use cars upto1600cc only.
“Chairman currently using the following vehicles in addition to his Honda Civic cars: 2 Toyota Prados (3000cc) [One in Black and One in White Colour]; 1 Toyota Corolla GLi (1300cc); 1 Suzuki Swift (1300cc). All these cars are being shown on pool duty on papers whereas actually these cars are in personal use.
“Finance Act 2012 amended the Pemra Act 2007 whereby any surplus funds were to be surrendered to the federal government by Pemra by the end of each financial year.
However, in order to defeat the said purposes of Finance Act 2012 and deprive the federal exchequer of millions of rupees, Chairman purchased 23 vehicles, detail of the same is as follows: 12 Suzuki Cultus cars, 01 Toyota Altis 1600cc, 01 Toyota GLI, 01 Double Cabin VIGO, 02 Single Cabin, 05 Suzuki Bolan and 01 Suzuki Mehran in the last month of fiscal year 2012-2013. This action shows his disrespect towards government policies and ongoing economic crises.
“In its rebuttal, the incumbent management has grilled its own legal wing while factual position is quite contrary and different. A qualified GM Legal/Litigation in Pemra HQs. when raised objections on engaging the private counsel on exorbitant rates, without any price negotiations and in violation of the Authority’s decision, he was immediately transferred to Lahore Regional office where he is sitting dormant working under another GM. Likewise, another competent officer presently on deputation in PEMRA with law degree was serving as GM Regulations raised similar objections. “She was first transferred to Licensing Wing. Realizing her as an obstacle in the way of wrong practices, she was then transferred to Research and Policy Wing. The Secretary to the Authority (a General Manager), who is not even a law graduate, offered his services and ultimately was given the additional charge of GM Litigation and Regulations. Being junior in seniority, any officer always become ready to sign any document for occupying senior position.
“During the tenure of a previous chairman Iftikhar Rashid the Authority had given approval to hire private counsels with the following fee structure: Civil Courts- Rs25,000 per case; Session Courts- Rs50,000 per case;
High Courts- Rs75,000 per case; Supreme Court- Rs100,000 per case.The Chairman was however, empowered to pay higher legal fee but in exceptional cases, a condition which is now a practice rather than exception. There were only 60 to 70 court cases during the tenure of Iftikhar Rashid and Pemra had then collected record revenue with prestige and honour.
“After present chairman take charge of his office, an extraordinary increase in litigations has been witnessed, something which needs a detail investigation. As many as 300 cases were filed against Pemra in different courts of law during the period of the incumbent. Authority had engaged an advocate in 12 cases in Sindh High Court @ Rs55,000/- in each case. But later the present management hired another counsel, a close associate of the incumbent Chairman, since long, for those 12 cases @ Rs260,000/- each. It is worth mentioning that proper procedure was not even followed to place the counsel on Pemra’s panel.
This practice was also repeated in many other cases of FM Radios by additionally engaging the same counsel in Lahore and Islamabad. Pemra has so far paid more than Rs25 million during the last six months to this single legal firm including 6 cases worth rupees 1.5 million each. Such exorbitant payments have also been made to some other legal firms as well.
This amount is much higher than the total budget under the head in the present financial year (2013-2014) and exceeds the amount paid in the last three years which would eventually requires budget re-appropriation in the legal fee head in the present financial year. Instead of utilising Pemra’s own legal team and negotiation with counsels, the present management is bending upon maligning its own legal wing in a bid to hush up its corrupt practices and find an excuse for the huge payments to other counsels. True fact could be revealed by analysing the outcome and increase in number of cases despite the huge payments.
“POWA is very concerned about the irregularities being done in Pemra in utter violation of the rules and regulations. If this practice continues, yet another organisation would soon come to a close or become bankrupt.
There is a lot of expectation from the present government that it would weed out the corrupt and corrupt practices in all Government and autonomous organisations.
Powa therefore, demands of the federal government to urgently order a thorough investigation of Pemra affairs covering the period from January 2013 to December 2013, by honest and competent officers from the Auditor General office, the FIA, and NAB, which investigates all the payments, purchases, recruitment made and licenses issued during this period.”
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