‘Over 5,000 mobile phone SIMs to be blocked’

Measure part of govt's efforts to curb the use of illegal cell-phones which make it harder to track down terrorists.

KARACHI:

The government has directed mobile phone companies to block over 5,000 mobile phones which have the same identification number by Thursday night, said Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik at the Sindh Governor House in Karachi.

The interior minister has asked telecommunications operators to block the SIM cards of mobile phones that have the same IMEI number, an identification code that is supposed to be unique to each phone.

The measure is part of the government’s efforts to curb  the use of illegal cell-phones which make it harder to track down terrorists and other criminals. The government is also planning to block the mobile phone connections of people who have obtained a SIM card by using fake identification documents within the next 15 days, claimed the minister.

Malik said that he had discussed the issue of target killings and extortion in Karachi at length with Sindh Governor Ishratul Ibad Khan and members of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) and that he had assured the business community that the government would crack down on the problem.

“Fake mobile SIMs is the main reason crime is flourishing in the city and the criminal groups who are involved in target killings and extortion use these,” said Malik. “We will take action against any mobile companies that defy government orders.”

Despite the tough-sounding bravado, the minister seemed to concede that the law and order situation in the city is likely to remain out of the government’s control for a while. He asked Karachi’s businesses to install the latest security equipment on their premises.

The minister tried to put a brave face on the recent fraying of ties between his Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and their coalition partners, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), over the target-killing issue. He said that MQM leader Altaf Hussain and other coalition partners in the Sindh government have joined hands against terrorism as well target killings in the provincial capital.

Meanwhile, MQM leaders held a press conference at their headquarters in Karachi and claimed that the targeted assassinations of their party workers was a conspiracy to weaken it at a time when it is actively trying to expand its national reach. The party seemed unimpressed with the interior minister’s promise for action.

“We were assured of prompt action in order to stop such occurrences and for arresting the killers. No serious efforts were made by the government to arrest the killers after such a serious act of terrorism”, said Raza Haroon, a member of the MQM central coordination committee.

Haroon claimed that 9 MQM sympathisers had been killed in the last 48 hours and that over 81 MQM supporters have been killed since January. The party demanded that the federal and provincial government take action against the killings of MQM workers.

 

 

Published in The Express Tribune, April 15^th, 2011.