As the upcoming license auctions draw close, news flows in that global telecom giants are cosnidering to participate in the bidding process. Prospective bidders to enter the Pakistan telecom market were informed to 3G/4G/LTE advisory committee.

As reported by Dawn News, they include:

• AT&T of USA
• British Vodafone
• Japan’s DoComo
• Qtel of Qatar
• Roshan Telecom from Afghanistan

The report further streghtens Warid’s un-fit financial position for the bid. Also, Warid can possibly make a joint bid with some telecom firm from Malaysia. Qubee is also reported to be in talks with current market players for a joint bid.

Complete report from Dawn News follows:

At least nine telecommunication companies including four world majors are likely to participate in bidding due by end-March for third and fourth generation telecom licences in Pakistan, raising hopes for a better foreign exchange yield.

An advisory committee on 3G/4G/LTE led by prime minister’s adviser on finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh was informed on Thursday that British Vodafone, Japan’s DoComo, AT&T of United States, QTel of Qatar and even Roshan Telecom of Afghanistan were preparing for bidding to be new foreign entrants in the country’s fast growing telecom industry.

The information, based on market intelligence, was put forward by Ministry of Telecommunication and Pakistan
Telecommunication Authority (PTA).

The advisory committee was also informed that among the existing players Ufone, Mobilink and Zong were keen to get the new licences to be available for 15 years. Another player Warid was not in a position to independently vie for the future licence due to financial constraints but was in contact with a leading Malaysian telecom firm for a joint bid, according to market intelligence.

Qbee another firm that currently operates wireless and internet services in Pakistan and Bangladesh was also reported to be making contacts with some market players for a joint bid.

The advisory committee, said these sources, discussed a proposal to appoint consultant or a consortium of consultants to assist the government in transaction structure and bidding process but was informed that this could delay the transaction in view of procurement rules while the government was interested in over $800 million sale proceeds during the current financial year.

The finance ministry was of the view that the government could exercise its right to bypass procurement rules to reduce time for the appointment of consultants because that would help the government to maximise sale proceeds. The committee members remained divided over the issue, Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh said the decision would be made in a couple of days after consultations with the ministry of law.

In the meanwhile, the PTA was directed to enhance its coordination with the major telecom players for wider participation in the bidding process. The committee decided to appoint a media consultant for the transaction. The committee also considered replies to objections raised by cross-party members of the senate over the base price fixed by the PTA for the bidding. It also decided to issue an international advertisement for competitive bidding.

The government plans to auction three 3G and one cellular licence for 1900/2100 MHz (3G/4G/LTE) band and 800 MHz Band. The base price for 3G licence to be effective for 15 years has been set at $210 million while the base price for cellular licence for 8 years has been set at $155 million.

Likewise, the earnest money to qualify for the bidding has been set at $31.5 million for each bidder of 3G and $23.25 million for cellular license. The spectrum capacity allocation has already been fixed for three 3G licences.

The bidders would be required to start their offers from the base price fixed by government with each increment of at least $2 million multiples. The successful bidder would be required to deposit 50 per cent of the auction price within 30 days of the auction and remaining 50 per cent in five equal instalments. The bidder would be allowed to launch its operations on 100 per cent payment of bid money.

The senators had objected to the bid price saying it was too low given the fact that cellular companies had paid $291 million per license in 2004 for 2G services (GSM), now considered an obsolete technology. The advisory committee was, however, told that base price did not mean a sale price that would go up on competitive bidding and reminded the senators that the base price for 2G licenses was set at $61 million that had increased to $291 through bidding.

The meeting was informed that base price for cellular licence was set at $155 million because it was being issued against the remaining 8 years period of the defunct Instaphone instead of other cellular licenses that were for 15 years. Even the bidding result for one GSM license would also go up.

The committee was informed that base price was arrived at after taking into consideration the 2004 auction result of 2G (GSM), expected service revenues, subscriber growth, economic growth, per capita income, political situation and population of the country.

via Dawn News

By Saeed Shah for The Miami Herald

Pakistan’s political crisis, which pits its president against determined opponents in foes in Parliament, the Supreme Court and the military, is likely to reach fever pitch on Monday with a confidence vote scheduled in Parliament and hearings scheduled in two critical court cases.

The crisis is so intense that President Asif Zardari’s administration may be willing to call elections for as soon as October, according to members of his ruling coalition and its advisers. But that may not be enough to mollify the opposition, which wants earlier elections, or the country’s powerful military establishment, which is believed to be trying to force a so-called “soft coup,” under which Zardari, a critic of the military’s traditional dominance of Pakistan, would be forced out by Parliament or the courts.

The threat of an outright coup also hangs over the crisis, if the politicians cannot find a way out or the court proceedings reach absolute stalemate.

Whether the government can reach agreement with opposition leader Nawaz Sharif is unclear. Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party doesn’t want to announce elections until after voting in March for a new Senate, which the PPP is widely expected to win. But Sharif would like the new elections to be in the summer, perhaps June, which would require an earlier announcement.

“There is no other option for the government to come out of the current crisis without elections,” said an adviser to the PPP leadership, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, as did the other coalition members. “It is in the interests of the PPP to reach an agreement with Nawaz.”

The PPP rules with three major coalition partners, but the alliance is looking shaky. Two of the parties, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Q, have distanced themselves somewhat from the government.

A senior member of the coalition said the parties so far have agreed internally only to a general election to be held in October. That would be just a few months before the February 2013 date when Parliament would complete its five-year term and elections would have to be held anyway.

An early election should also placate the courts and the military. A supposedly neutral caretaker government would have to be installed to oversee a three-month electioneering period.

Another coalition member said: “It is 100 percent certain that there will be elections in 2012. The only solution is elections. It doesn’t matter whether they are held in June or October.”

Zardari’s coalition itself brought Monday’s confidence vote resolution to Parliament, cleverly wording it so that it asks for support not for the prime minister or even the government, but for democracy. That makes it difficult to oppose.

But the PPP’s troubles in Parliament are only one of the fronts in its battle for survival. The courts and the military are both maneuvering against the party’s leaders, with two explosive cases coming up for hearings Monday.

The first stems from a 2007 decree by President Pervez Musharraf that granted immunity from prosecution to Zardari and other exiled PPP politicians in an effort to persuade them to return to Pakistan to participate in elections that Musharraf was being pressured by the United States to hold.

The Supreme Court later ruled, however, that the decree was illegal and demanded that the government reopen corruption charges against Zardari stemming from the time when his wife, the assassinated PPP leader Benazir Bhutto, was prime minister.

The government declined, however, and now the court has summoned the government to explain its actions. The court could declare Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in contempt of court, which would in effect remove him from office.

The other case involves the the scandal in which a judicial commission is investigating allegations that Husain Haqqani, a close Zardari adviser and former ambassador to the U.S., wrote a memo that was passed to U.S. officials in May. That memo offered to replace the Pakistan military’s top officials in return for U.S. support should the military attempt to push Zardari aside.

Haqqani, who was forced to resign, says he had nothing to do with the memo, which the military has said amounted to treason.

The judicial commission may take testimony this week from an American businessman, and occasional news commentator, Mansoor Ijaz, who claimed that he had delivered the memo to U.S. officials, in a column that appeared in the British newspaper the Financial Times in October. Ijaz has said he will show up as a witness, though he apparently has yet to receive a visa to enter Pakistan.

Filed under: Afghanistan, American Muslims, Democracy, Freedoms, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Pakistanis, President Obama, Taliban, United States, US Army Tagged: Asif Ali Zardari, General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani, Imran Khan, Mansoor Ijaz, Memogate, MQM, Muttahida Quami Movement, Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan, Pakistan Muslim League-Q, Pakistan Parliment, Pervez Musharraf, PPP, Yousuf Raza Gilani

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued contempt of court notices to former law minister Babar Awan and other leaders of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).

The notices were issued with regard to an allegedly insulting press conference addressed by Awan on the memo case.

Apart from Awan, notices were issued to Khurshid Shah, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, PPP’s Secretary Information Qamar Zaman Kaira and adviser to the prime minister, Farooq Awan, a younger brother of the former law minister.

The court directed all parties to submit their replies by Jan 13.

It is pertinent to note that on Dec 1, the Supreme Court had admitted petitions pertaining to the memo scandal for hearing. In reaction to that, the former minister had called a press conference where all individuals who have been issued the contempt notices were also present.

By Saeed Shah for The Guardian

Pakistan’s embattled president, Asif Ali Zardari, has been hospitalised in Dubai with a heart condition, triggering speculation that it could be used as an excuse for him to step down amid growing pressure from the military.

A government adviser said Zardari had suffered a “minor heart attack”, but this was at odds with the official spokesman for the president, who said the president had gone for routine tests for a pre-existing heart condition.

Rumours of a coup or a resignation forced by the military consumed the media and the internet, fuelled by a report in Foreign Policy magazine that said Zardari was “incoherent” on Monday night during a telephone conversation with Barack Obama.

Zardari’s son and political heir-apparent, Bilawal, met prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in Islamabad, adding to media hysteria about imminent change. Bilawal is chairman of the ruling Pakistan Peoples party.

The speculation hit a receptive, febrile political atmosphere, rocked by a diplomatic scandal and the recent jolt to relations with the US over the deaths of Pakistani soldiers at a border checkpost.

Pakistan has been ruled for half its existence by the military, and the armed forces have pulled the strings the rest of the time, meaning that the threat of coups are ever present .

Zardari’s aides said he would not resign. The president is deeply unpopular with Pakistan’s military establishment, which is widely believed to be behind repeated attempts to oust him.

“He had a minor heart attack on Tuesday. He flew to Dubai where he had an angioplasty. He’s in good health now. He will come back tomorrow. There’s no question of any resignation,” Mustafa Khokhar, the government’s adviser on human rights told the AFP news agency.

However, Farhatullah Babar, the president’s spokesman, dismissed media speculation, saying “Zardari is in a Dubai hospital for medical tests and checkup as planned”.

The president is under pressure from the “memogate” scandal in Pakistan, where he is accused of being behind a written offer delivered to the US military leadership in the days after the raid on Osasma bin Laden in May this year.

The anonymous memo offered to rein in the Pakistani military, in return for US support. Pakistan’s former US ambassador and close Zardari aide, Husain Haqqani, has already been forced to resign over the issue and faces possible treason charges.

Ali Dayan Hasan, of Human Rights Watch, the international campaigning group, warned against any military intervention. “Constitutional rule of law must be followed and civilian supremacy must be maintained,” he said. “Governance must be through genuine periodic elections.”

Filed under: Afghanistan, Democracy, Freedoms, Pakistan, Pakistan Army, Pakistanis, President Obama, United States, US Army Tagged: Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Zardari, Husain Haqqani, Memogate, Pakistan, Pakistanis, President Barack Obama