Dr. Syed Ismail Shah has been appointed as the Chairman of Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority, a high-level source has just confirmed us.
Mr. Tariq Sultan will be the member Finance at the PTA, the source added.
As a regulatory requirement, Dr. Syed Ismail Shah was initially
appointed as Member Technical, but was soon promoted to the Chairmanship
of the authority.
Summary for the above mentioned appointments has been approved by the
Cabinet Division, and notification is being prepared as of now and will
be issued by day end today.
Third member compliance and Co-ordination was not announced. It is
likely that slot for member compliance may never get filled before
required legal amendments in the Telecom Act.
It merits mentioning here that Supreme Court had given today’s deadline for the appointment of Chairman and Members of PTA. Tomorrow is the hearing date for the petition urging an urgent auction of 3G licenses.
Supreme Court had directed the government to appoint Chairman and PTA
Members with-in 10 days, without which the auction of 3G licenses was
impossible.
Dr. Syed Islmail Shah has remained Member Telecom in Ministry of
Information Technology during 2012. Dr. Shah bring with the vast
experience in the ICT industry and academics at national and
international level.
He is a Qualcomm certified trainer on 3G technologies and a Life
Member of the Pakistan Engineering Council, Senior Member, IEEE, USA and
Member of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication
Engineers, Japan.
Dr. Ismail Shah started his professional carrier in 1989 by joining
the Telecommunication division of Siemens Engineering Company,
Islamabad, Pakistan.
He did his PhD in Electrical Engineering from University of
Pittsburgh, PA, USA. During and after his PhD he also worked at the
University of Pittsburgh.
On his return to Pakistan in 1998 he joined the GIK Institute. In
2000, he joined Enabling Technologies and later, the Center for Advanced
Research and Studies in Engineering.
Dr. Shah taught in the Department of Computing and Technology, Iqra
University Islamabad Campus in 2004. Syed Ismail Shah, has been
associated with the Department of Computing and Technology, Iqra
University Islamabad Campus for more than 5 years and is also the
Executive Director Central Asian CDMA Forum (CACF).
Mr Tariq Sultan, before becoming the Member Finance, was working as
DG Finance at PTA. He has previously worked with Canadian Imperial Bank
of Commerce as Financial Anlyst. He has also worked with NIB Bank in the
past.
Mr. Sultan has a Master degree in Accounting and Finance from The University of Manchester and an MBA degree from IBA, Karachi.