Gilgit-Baltistan and AJK to get 3G/4G facilities this year, says IT Minister Anusha Rehman

ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Chaudhry Barjees Tahir and Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman had a consultative meeting to discuss different aspects of policy directive for provision of next generation mobile services to Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan.

The meeting was held at Ministry of Information Technology here on Monday.

Federal Secretary for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan Abid Saeed, Federal Secretary Information Technology Azmat Ali Ranjha, Director General SCO Maj Gen Amir Bajwa Chairman PTA, DG FAB and other senior officials from both the ministries were present in the meeting.

Barjees Tahir said that Prime Minister had committed that Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan would get 3G/4G services soon and people of those two areas were anxiously waiting for that.

Anusha Rahman said that provision of 3G/4G services to people of AJK & GB was on the priority agenda and “we are working towards providing latest technology to the inhabitants of these areas”.

Upgradation of their GSM networks is being done by SCO through PSDP projects and, “we will fully support Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan in the next generation spectrum auction of 3G/4G to fulfill the commitment of our Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif.”

Different aspects of policy directives of proposed next generation spectrum auction were also discussed at length.

Both sides agreed to execute the 3G/4G spectrum auction by September 2016.

The minister IT also said that around Rs two billion were available in the USF Fund for development of ICT sector in AJK and GB. As soon as framework was finalized by AJK and GB Councils, the funds would be transferred to USF for development in AJK and GB.