Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) after taking their control back from the Cabinet Division without the permission of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) is counterproductive to the vital security interests of the state and is an anomaly.

These views expressed by sources are although other three regulatory bodies whose complete control has been given to ministries are also of immense public importance, the two institutions namely PTA and FAB are, security-wise, very sensitive institutions as, among other functions, they also deal with sensitive international communication including the exchanges among diplomatic personnel across the globe.

Such organizations are directly under the control of the federal government in the case of Pakistan and under the main government in other countries. It is quite recently, the federal government has placed the functioning of five regulatory bodies namely National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), Frequency Allocation Board (FAB), Oil and Gas Regulatory Authority (Ogra) and Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) under the ministries concerned vide a notification issued the other day.

Only the administrative control of these five bodies was positioned under the ministries concerned but now the federal government has given complete control to the ministries in December 2016.

Sources further opined that regulators are considered as independent bodies that ensure a strict check on the functioning of the ministries in safeguarding common man’s interests in particular and society’s interests in general. Placing these regulatory bodies under the ministries means that the ministries will run without any accountability and will manipulate the decisions of the regulatory bodies.

Sources concluded in this manner: “The decision to hand over complete control will also give a clear message that different state structures including the CCI have become dysfunctional”. And in the case of sensitive institutions like the PTA and FAB, the decision is not in the fitness of things.