ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali passed away at the Armed Forces Institute of Cardiology in Rawalpindi on Wednesday, Dhani Bux Jamali, a close relative, confirmed while talking to Arab News.
The 76-year-old politician was rushed to the hospital after he suffered a cardiac arrest nine days ago.
According to the local media, he was on ventilator for the last four days but could not recover despite the medical treatment.
“His funeral will be offered at his native town Rojhan Jamali in Jaffarabad district in Balochistan,” said Dhani Bux Jamali.
The former prime minister belonged to the southwestern province and began his political career from there in the 1970s.
He also served as Balochistan’s chief minister twice during his career.
Jamali was counted among the top Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leaders, though he left the party after the 1999 military coup by General (r) Pervez Musharraf and became prime minister after winning his constituency in the 2002 general elections.
Pakistan’s army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and several political figures expressed their condolences at the ex-prime minister’s death.
https://twitter.com/OfficialDGISPR/status/1334190322918825984?s=20
Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali passes away in Rawalpindi
https://arab.news/4jgy3
Former prime minister Mir Zafarullah Khan Jamali passes away in Rawalpindi
- The 76-year-old politician began his career from Balochistan and twice served the province as chief minister
- Jamali suffered a cardiac arrest nine days ago and was taken to a leading medical facility for treatment
Pakistan to hold major spectrum auction early next year, paving way for 5G rollout
- Pakistan’s IT Minister Shaza Fatima says auction aimed for late January or early February to ease congestion, improve Internet quality
- ECC cleared auction framework after international benchmarking, as finance minister warns unsold spectrum causes economic losses
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan plans to complete a major telecom spectrum auction at the beginning of the next year, paving the way for the country’s first rollout of 5G services, Information Technology Minister Shaza Fatima said on Tuesday.
The planned auction comes amid mounting pressure on Pakistan’s telecom networks, with users and businesses complaining of slow Internet speeds and frequent disruptions as limited spectrum struggles to serve a population of about 240 million.
“Our effort is to complete this auction by the last week of January or the first week of February,” the minister told a joint news conference. “The quality of Internet service in Pakistan is not at par with international best practices or even regional standards, and one of the fundamental reasons for this is that spectrum is simply not available.”
She said Pakistan’s entire population currently operates on about 274 megahertz of spectrum, compared with around 600 megahertz in Bangladesh, leading to congestion that she likened to “trying to run eight lanes of traffic through two lanes.”
The minister said the government plans to auction nearly 600 megahertz of spectrum — the largest such auction in Pakistan’s history — including several frequency bands that have never been auctioned in the country before.
The move would improve 3G and 4G services and introduce 5G in Pakistan for the first time, she added.
Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said earlier at the news conference that the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) had approved recommendations for the auction prepared by the Spectrum Advisory Committee after extensive consultations with telecom operators, regulators and consumers.
“Unsold spectrum directly translates into economic loss,” he said, adding that the committee had engaged a reputable international consultant, National Economic Research Associates, to advise on spectrum pricing, payment terms and auction design based on international benchmarks.
He said the government had reviewed those recommendations using what he described as a “Pakistan-first lens” before securing ECC approval, with the proposal now set to go to the cabinet for final clearance.
