Warid-Mobilink merger related inquiry, arrests to be made in the coming days, NAB

Islamabad: A sub-committee of the Public Accounts Committee has been informed that inquiry into the financial benefits and irregularities of the merger of Warid and Mobilink is in the final stages and arrests will be made in the coming days.

Sub-Committee 3 of the Public Accounts Committee was chaired by Senator Sherry Rehman, which reviewed the audit report of the Department of Telecommunications 16-2015.

It should be noted that in 2015 Mobilink and Warid had agreed to merge and become a company, while in 2017 a joint CEO was announced and the company was named Jazz.

Meanwhile, the representative of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) said that on the occasion of the launch of 3G, Warid did not participate in the license auction but later started serving as he had a spectrum.

He said that 'Warid at that time had Spectrum and Mobilink had 3G, which benefited both from integration as Warid started using 3G and Mobilink used Spectrum'.

On the other hand, Chairman of Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Major General (retd) Amir Azim Bajwa while speaking in support of the companies said that AGP did not understand the issue correctly, Warid was less subscribed. Benefited.

He said that a decade ago, Warid paid $ 29 million for the spectrum he used at the time of the merger.

The meeting was interrupted by NAB Director of Operations Ghazi Rehman and the President told the committee that NAB should also be invited to the next meeting.

"We are investigating the matter that both Warid and Mobilink benefited each other after the merger as they lacked some services and facilities were available to another company," he said.

During the meeting, he added that the inquiry is in the final stages and some persons will be arrested soon in case of irregularities.

In addition, the committee decided to call the NAB at the next meeting as it would help the committee better understand the issue.