Merger fulfilled statutory requirements: Jazz.

ISLAMABAD -- In response to observations made during a meeting of a subcommittee of Public Accounts Committee (PAC), a spokesperson for Jazz said the merger of Jazz-Warid fulfilled all statutory and regulatory requirements and the same was duly endorsed by the authorities concerned a few years ago.

He also claimed that all relevant rules were followed for strict compliance.

On Jan 29, during a meeting of the PAC subcommittee, a representative of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) informed the lawmakers that an inquiry regarding irregularities and financial benefits taken due to the merger of Warid and Mobilink was in its final stage and arrest of some personalities will also be made in coming days. The committee, chaired by PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, was discussing an audit report of the telecommunication sector for the year 2015-16.

There was an agenda item, 'Loss to public exchequer due to illegal usage of 4G LTE (long-term evolution) services by M/s Warid - Rs51.69 billion ($516 million).'

A representative of the Auditor General of Pakistan (AGP) said at the time of launch of 3G, Warid did not participate in an auction to get licence but later offered the service as it had spectrum.

'At that time, Warid had spectrum and Mobilink had 3G due to which both benefited due to the merger as Warid used...