The federal government has made amendments to the law for transferring the licence fee, renewal fee and spectrum auction proceeds received from telecom operators working in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to the regional government.
So far, the fee and proceeds got from the licensees have been parked in Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) as an agent of the AJK Council. Now, the government has amended the law to provide the fee to the AJK government.
The decision was made in a recent meeting of the cabinet. The Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan recalled that the matter was earlier submitted to the cabinet in its meeting held on February 6, 2024 by the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunication.
The cabinet directed the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs to prepare a summary, in accordance with the Rules of Business, 1973 and by incorporating the views of relevant ministries, for consideration in the next cabinet meeting.
Explaining the background, the meeting was informed that the prime minister had constituted an inter-ministerial committee with the defence minister as its convener to examine and make recommendations relating to the payment of licence fee, renewal fee, and spectrum auction proceeds to the AJK government.
The inter-ministerial committee, in its meeting on December 29, 2023, decided to form a sub-committee to examine the issue. After detailed discussion, the sub-committee recommended that since the licence fee, renewal fee, spectrum auction proceeds, etc received from the licensees operating in AJK were parked with PTA as an agent of the AJK Council, the IT ministry may initiate a summary on the release of such fee to the AJK government for approval of the cabinet.
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The inter-ministerial committee, while endorsing the proposal of the sub-committee in a meeting held on January 18, 2024, directed the IT ministry to send a summary to the federal cabinet as a top priority.
The IT ministry explained that Section 5(2) of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council Adaptation of Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act, 2005 (the Adaptation Act) provides that PTA shall transfer 50% or more of the fee received from licensees to the AJK Council.
It was added that by virtue of Article 51(2) of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974, all laws made by the AJK Council prior to the AJK Interim Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act, 2018 shall continue to be in force and the reference of words “Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council” made in existing laws shall be construed and understood to be a reference to the AJK Assembly, the government of Pakistan, or the government of AJK, as the case may be.
In the instant case, as the subject of telecommunication falls under Article 31(3), read with Part-A Third Schedule of the AJK Constitution, the words “Azad Jammu & Kashmir Council in Section 5(2) of the Adaptation Act shall be construed as government of Pakistan.”
It was explained that since that created an anomaly, the IT ministry submitted a summary to the cabinet proposing that in the presence of Section 5(2) of the Adaptation Act in its current form, PTA was liable to transfer the fee received from the licensees operating in AJK to the government of Pakistan, whereas the proceeds actually belonged to the government of AJK.
During the ensuing discussion, it was explicated that Part-A of the Third Schedule of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution Act, 1974 referred to legislative competence, not necessarily to any direct service delivery obligations or rights to revenue collection; that as per scheme of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974, the competence to legislate on the subject of telecommunication rests with the government of Pakistan, which included amending Section 5(2) of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council Adaptation of Pakistan Telecommunication (Re-organisation) Act, 2005, as had been proposed.
It was further explicated that the proceeds in question never formed part of the government of Pakistan’s non-tax revenues and were passed on to the government of AJK through the AJK Council.
Following the discussion, the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs sought approval of the cabinet for the requisite amendment in Section 5(2) of the Adaptation Act with effect from the date of promulgation of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Interim Constitution (Thirteenth Amendment) Act, 2018.
The cabinet considered the summary titled “Payment of Licence Fee, Renewal Fee and Spectrum Auction Proceeds to the Azad Government of the State of Jammu & Kashmir” dated February 7, 2024, submitted by the Ministry of Kashmir Affairs, and approved the proposal.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 12th, 2024.
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