SIM cards misuse irks NA panel

Summons PTA, NADRA chiefs for comprehensive briefing

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Friday informed the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication that it had blocked around 732,000 illegal Subscriber Identity/Identification Modules (SIMs) during 2021 till date.

However, the committee meeting, chaired by Ali Khan Jadoon, expressed dissatisfaction over the action taken against illegal use of SIM cards, directing the PTA and Nadra chairmen to appear before the body with a comprehensive plan of action in that regard.

The committee observed that illegal SIMs were a threat to the county's security. "We want to end the issue of illegal SIMs as soon as possible but the departments concerned are not cooperating with us as these are threatening the national security," the committee chairman said.

The PTA representatives informed the committee that the authority had introduced stringent measures to check illegal SIMs and problems had been considerably reduced.

He said the PTA had also taken punitive action against mobile operators whose sales centers or franchises were found involved in the issuance of SIMs without fulfilling the mandatory requirements and verification.

"We have directed the mobile operators not to issue SIMs without biometric verification."

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MNA Sher Ali Arbab was critical of the PTA for not solving the issue of illegal SIMs and said, "We are hearing the same briefing from the last many months as no concrete steps have been taken by the authority to settle the issue threatening national security."

He was of the view that the chairman of the committee must take action against those officials who were summoned, but failed to appear and brief the body.

The lawmakers were of the view that all fraudulent activities were being carried out through the illegal SIMs.

Naz Baloch suggested establishing special cyber units in police stations for the registration of complaints. She also recommended empowerment of the Cybercrime Department by employing more staff as the existing strength was insufficient to handle the growing cases of cyber-crimes.

MNA Ali Gohar Khan suggested getting a comprehensive briefing on the cybercrime-related legislation. The chairman asked the PTA officials to share the national policy on cybercrime with the committee members in the next meeting.