PTA should manage a national database and announce a single phone number on which all phone thefts can be reported.
KARACHI: The discovery of 5,000 illegal SIMs held by a recently apprehended terrorist in Karachi should not have come as a rude surprise to the Sindh Assembly. It is for such occasions that the poet Mir Taqi Mir wrote his famous couplet: jaane na jaane gul hi na jaane baagh to sara jaane hai. One must also appreciate the provincial information minister who used this opportunity to confess that there were seven illegal SIMs on his name, while he possessed only one.
Known for its penchant for passing laws, an earlier law passed by the Sindh Assembly suggested that every child between the ages of five and 16 years shall have a fundamental right to free and compulsory education. This only resulted in worsening what little was left of schooling in Sindh. Thus, the resolution passed by the Sindh Assembly on May 5, 2014 to ban all illegal SIMs could only be taken with a pinch of salt.
All that the government needs to do is announce that all SIMs would stand blocked beyond a certain date unless they are registered through a process that is traceable to an individual, such as through his/her CNIC, biometric impressions and complete postal address. The number of SIMs per person should be limited to two and could be extended up to five on producing the annual tax return. The roaming facility for Afghan and South African SIMs be terminated and the Telecos that fail to comply with any of these instructions be heavily fined and their executives made to face criminal charges. The PTA should manage a national database and announce a single phone number on which all phone thefts can be reported. Finally the PTA must undergo a ‘guts’ transplant surgery so as to be in a position to ensure that the Telecos immediately block both the International Mobile Station Equipment Identity and the SIM when a phone theft is reported.
Naeem Sadiq
Published in The Express Tribune, May 8th, 2014.
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