PTA orders termination of late night mobile packages: Report
The directives were given in a statement issued by the PTA yesterday.
“We have received a number of complaints from the Supreme Court of Pakistan, the Standing Committee of the Parliament, senators, MNAs and subscribers regarding the promotion of vulgarity through such advertisements and have therefore asked CMOs to immediately discontinue such packages and to present compliance reports,” said PTA Chairman Farooq Awan.
According to the statement, regulatory heads of licensees admitted unanimously in a meeting called by the authority that their advertising was “not in line with the moral values of the society”.
PTA said a telecom company informed the attendees that a warning letter had already been issued to service providers who sent text messages related to these packages to their clients.
While recognizing liberalisation and competitiveness in the market as factors pushing operators to introduce such packages, PTA insisted that services of better quality could be provided to subscribers at affordable prices as long as practices “against the social norms” were not being encouraged.
The Reorganization Act of 1996, which mandates PTA to regulate competition in the telecommunication sector, protect consumer rights and ensure that the interests of users are safeguarded and protected is the act under which the authority claims to have taken the action.
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@Mujtaba:
More like "greatly disturbing".
@boco:
Agreed. Somebody needs to tell them that.
@Uzair:
I completely agree.
@Hassan K Bajwa:
"I completely agree with Hassan Bajwa. PTA must be disbanded. People against PTA must find a way to get their voices heard and put a stop to this nonsense policing. If anything, it should be an individual's right to decide what he or she wants to do with their phones. Matters like this should be the last thing to look into, for Governments who have no idea how to provide food, shelter and safety for their peoples.
ban on night pakages by PTA is not a good thing for studient besacuse some poor students are not able to contact with their famalies friend because of short of money to them. and also by the students use these types of pakages for studies they contact their friend for the study purposes and make their self to get the views of their friend about the selected topics. Therefore i request to PTA to reactivate these package for the bettrment of the student
*s
ban on night pakages by PTA is not a good thing for studient besacuse some poor students are not able to contact with their famalies friend because of short of money to them. and also by the students use these types of pakages for studies they contact their friend for the study purposes and make their self to get the views of their friend about the selected topics. Therefore i request to PTA to reactivate these package for the bettrment of the students
@Bushra J: put black dark glasses on the men's eyes who r staring women with dirty mind instead of putting burqa on women
@Fahad: Where are the parents, Is there is no resposibility on them. Everything should be done by another party and parents are enjoying their own life.
Few more "solid steps" and we will be next Afghanistan; breathing under the umbrella of Taliban. well done PTA, just your contribution was missing in this welfare state.
good step, but slight late i guess...cellular companies have now introduced internet packages where you can use UNLIMITED social networks just for few rupees...how would PTA look into that? even a child studying in 8-9th standard has social network enabled or android mobiles which adds to spoiling the youth...there should be age restriction to use cell phones too
Just out of curiosity, but if a company comes up with, say, 30,000 seconds free talktime that can be used within 30 days, at any time of the day, and the user of such a plan uses this at night, whose fault is it?
Also, how excactly does a carrier become responsible for content not produce by it? If someone is accused under blasphemy laws for having typed and printed hate content, does the State take penal action against the computer and printer manufacturer as well? Or if the fellow circulates the content by fax, will the State take action against the carrier and ban all fax machines?
Those saying 'good job' etc. are obviously single and forever alone...
I am for this. Indeed the youth of the country needs protection against moral corruption. In fact, I propose that television the the Internet should be banned after office hours. Corrupt western influences are misguiding our youth.
while i dnt understand how PTA can control or is responsible for the social moral norms in pakistan , one thing which is good is that at least now i wnt be bombarded with friendship messages crank calls disturbing my sleep!! plus maybe after this maybe we can get rid of the whole cheeky adverts too( lying to mum about test to go with friends , coming back seeing a girl then talking to girl on phone later, or lying to get out of dropping an aunt home , or the smart banrha ha, for me it is rude banraha ha rather than smart!!( the man handling two phones drops one, the girl finds the rate of stock and says app k pas nhn ha uncle??, or a man asking a group of kids for rasta and the girl showing on goofle map on phone and thne saying kyu aapk pas nhn hai uncle??) or the latest ( a girl asknig her bil for joota chupai rasam gives one rupee she gives boot laces only saying nothing comes in i rupee, bang the carrier says our package is for all night next shot the same sis is shown talking shyly to someone on the phone in the midst of her sis wedding, while at background still the festivities go on) this is what i dnt like they always show ignoring family at expense of phone friends.
i feel rather than the whole ban on packages there should be some sort of check on advertising agencies, yes sell the stuff but dnt give messages- ditching family for call on phone is cool hip, lying to mom for friends is the in thing, cheeky replies to an earnest request for help is not smart is rude!!
Back to the good old days of landlines.
I am sure this will boost FDI in the telecom sector, first they randomly started to block service now telcos can't even set their own prices...
Need of the hour.. Well done PTA The legal age for drinking alcohol in USA is 21.. I need some comments on that by the "freedom of choice experts".
@Karachiite: who is imposing anything on u???? u can still talk whole night to whoever u want to talk.. but u have to spend some extra for this "ayyashi" ur freedom of choice is protected, hence u r free to destroy ur self. :)
I spank my monkey late at night. Maybe they should ban animals as well.
prohibitions and restrictions are at the heart of any system,a baby cant be allowed to play with fire untill it knows its true nature,same is the case with pakistani youth,better late than never,v good decision,at least i can enjoy sound sleep and avoid peacefully the si siiiiiii siiiii of my nausty room-mate all night.
@Khan, i agree wholeheartedly with you, just bc parents are unable to control their own children, they feel the need to appeal to the government for help....hum se hamare bache nahi sambhal rahe, pls aap sambhal lein. I wrote in my blog about this issue, mentioning the steps my mother took to monitor my cell phone usage. she got me a cell phone when i was 17 then she kept a very strict eye on me - she used to confiscate my phone at night so i wouldnt chat up through the night and she made sure i had a postpaid sim rather than a prepaid one for the simple reason that she wanted to check my bills for suspiciously long calls and unnecessarily high SMS charges, sometimes shed even go so far as to receive my incoming calls herself to see who it was. what is preventing the parents of today from implementing steps like this for their own children, instead of putting everything on the shoulders of the government authorities? The blog link is here:
http://sufiazamir.com/2012/11/moral-policing-in-pakistan-is-just-getting-more-and-more-ridiculous/
@A Khan:
People who're applauding this decision are not mature enough to think beyond 'teenager & vulgarity'. Lets not forget we are over populated country where literacy rate is very low.
For Heavens sake these are call packages not brothels .. Almost every family has some relatives and family members living in other cities and they all benefit from it too as far teenagers and youngsters misuse is concern, its their parents responsibility to give them good upbringing not the government's. These packages not unique to Pakistan only but are available in every other country .. here in UK we have Weekend & Evening free calls included in land line packages.
This is a total stupidity. People who are supporting this decision need to broaden their thinking. PTA has completely ignored the advantages of these late night packages. PTA cannot control the nudity on the web. What is the next step? banning Internet? Go Home PTA! You're drunk.
Your recommendations about banning various other things are worthy of immediate consideration. Your are 'great', thanks. @Bushra J:
YES @Zehra:
i think this in not a good work.................in future facebook or skype baned in pakistan???????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Wht is difference remain between the so called "democratically elected" Government and Taliban. A very disappointing news for everyone who want free speech rights for all Pakistanis. Shame for those who are supporting such illegal acts in the country. Mullah's soon will be ruling us with their unhealthy thinking and laws.
Does not effect me cause I do not have any money to even recharge my balance and sometimes my sim gets disabled for not updating my balance =(
The comments show a strong but unjustified attack from those who do not like the move. PTA is not there to determine the moral of the society, its what our religion tell us to do. PTA made its decision based on the complaints received by it from a vast no of the population. The night package had indeed put a severe dent on the society and families. You should see the sufferings caused by these easy to get packages to families who have been affected. The targets of these packages were mostly teens who are not able to control their emotions specially if these sort of packages exists. It would be even more better if even the calls of teens can be monitored by the parents. Indeed there are other areas too like the immoral channels being shown by cable operators at night which also have to be dealt with.
even according to the business ethics its a great job.
@KSB: U R Having That FEEL when NO GF... :-D
Finally A Solid and Concrete Step, Time PTA got some Backbone, i'm 27 and i support this.
I think we have some hope .....
A very wise step indeed.
Excellent step, delayed but nonetheless
Now the minds of people managing PTA have have also been talibanised (sick). Instead of looking after infrastrucure of PTA or consumer interest, they r vomiting & forcing their medival ideas on citizen which r more mature than PTA to understand what is good or bad for them.
the best decision
This liberal vs the conservative debate in Pakistan is sooooo useless! We, the liberals, want democracy, which actually means that the nation would / should be governed by the laws voted for by the masses of the nation. What do you really think the "masses" of this country want?
No, under democracy, the minute minority of liberals and pseudo-liberals, do not get to decide what is wrong or right for this country. The illiterate, uneducated, immoderate, conservative 98% of this nation gets to decide how to run this country.
Those who want to live under a westernized concept of a liberal nation are more than welcome to attempt to jump ship and move on to greener pastures.
I don't see Pakistan becoming a liberal nation, not in my lifetime. I am even unsure if it can even become a moderate nation, let alone a liberal one.
Once again, this debate is useless.
Firstly, I think this is a lollipop given to the TELECOM industry due to the earlier negative decisions of PTA i.e. SIM blockages, new SIM procurement mechanism, etc.
No one here seems to realize that the TELECOM firms will also benefit from this. Imagine a nation of teenagers and others, addicted to late night calling. Now imagine that suddenly the cost of such calls goes up 50% - 100%. In my opinion, given the dirt cheap rates of the day calls as well, the actual cost of the night hawks won't go up by much. RESULT: very small impact on calling volume and a decent positive impact on revenues for TELECOMS.
Think about it!
@Logic:
So this "vulgarity" that people "do" on the phone - they will stop doing it now because the package offering cheaper rates is gone? Think a little. This will only have an impact on the most poor only - who use night packages for their regular phone calls. The girlfriend/boyfriend types whom we are out to stop can mostly afford the regular rates I'm sure.
But, how do you "do" vulgarity on the phone anyway??? What exactly are people "doing" on the phone that is so vulgar?
give me a break...talking on phone is not harmful...there are so many other common trends which should be countered 1st in the name of destroying moral values :S
Perfect! This was spreading negativity in the society. Now the teenagers can sleep at night and make their mornings productive.
@babar: You think banning late night packages would make him away to talk to his family? Grow up...! There are lot of packages for day as well. even if he gets free in evening he can talk on hourly package offered by most of the service providers and I am sure he would get an alternative very soon by all the service providers.
PTA has done a great job.... Our new generation is already spoiled through Indian cultural media and these late night packages had done their job too in ruining people's life
@Qasim Luk: You have an option to leave Pakistan if you feel suffocation here. Please don't waste your life here.
Interesting to see people supporting this Talibanic move here. If you don't like talking at night, JUST DON'T. Why are you imposing your decisions on others? What's the difference between you and Taliban who do the same thing?
An excellent and long awaited decision. Well done PTA !!
There isn't a country in the world where mobile services are this cheap. The Telecom operators enjoy mass marketing campaigns along with special electricity tariffs, subsidies etc. The consumer does enjoy cheap calls but look at the worsening energy crises in the country since the inception of Telecom companies here, not to mention the time our new generation wastes! Nothing was planned by anyone in this or previous government to cater to this extra need and our manufacturing / process industries have suffered shamefully in the international market. PTA issued licenses to these companies and they paid a good price for it but we shouldn't let them change our socio-cultural outlook to this one of a kind "mobile freak" society! Its time to stop playing with mobile phones, grow up & start living in the real world!!!
PTA ne sab ko sudhaarnay ka theka utha raha kha? Who is PTA to decide that? There should be freedom of choice. Those who want to destroy themselves, let them do, you're not Allah to show them the right path. And those who have problem with night packages, SIMPLY DON'T TALK. Does someone force them to talk? Difficult to understand? PTA is 'official' Taliban.
Cell phones should be banned. They encourage immorality by allowing strangers to talk to each other. Some men are talking to women and vice versa too. Good step, but not enough
Its a bit disturbing that the government is deciding what is socially acceptable and what is not...
@hira baig: But if someone does not want to do vulgarity than they don't need a night package. Right?
@hira baig Know the word 'opportunity' ?
Well, all i remember my driver telling me yesterday only - how useful the late night packages are for him to call back home in Abottabad. Matter of perception nothing else - our failed state!
Good! Lot of crank calls in the late hours
What about a financially unfortunate Pakistani who for speaking to his family in a distant village/town waits through the day to benefit from these packages? Red tape in this country is really pushing it.
Surely, telecom industry should be able to have this undone in court. Late night packages are all about cheaper rates to get people to use their phones at night. How can anybody tell a seller he can't sell his product at the price he wants to sell it?
But this is a great way to drive business out of the country. PTA please think things through before going on a rampage. Telecom industry has been a great boon for our economy when everything else has been going downhill.
I can't believe people here are actually applauding such an illegal and unethical move by PTA that could open the flood gate to jeopardize free speech, freedom of communication, and freedom to information for Pakistanis. The government CANNOT dictate what are 'social norms' and 'moral behavior' and expect us to take it like its the absolute truth. Pakistan is a cesspool of corruption, crime, and atrocities against women/minors/minorities and making an issue as harmless as talking on the phone at night a matter of righting moral values is beyond hypocritical. For those simpletons who think that this ridiculous ban would help the youth in any way and increase productivity in our country: its not the job of telecom industry to teach values and principles to your children and you shouldn't expect it to be that way. If you can't get your children to get off the phone at night or study for examinations take that as a parenting failure and stop trying to deflect the blame. For those who need government intervention because their obsessive compulsive behavior will not let them switch their phones off need to see a therapist, don't use your lack of self control to preach others on when and to whom they can speak to. What if the government tells you whom you can marry and what you can eat, would you then take notice of this nonsense? Because that's all you sheeple seem to care about, civil liberty can go suck on a lemon. And to think that Mr. President has the cheek to call this country a 'democracy'.
Good decision indeed.
LOL this is utter madness. Please.. Morals and social behaviour isnt the plight of PTA. How about taking action against all the junk sms I get through the night which disturbs my sleep or action against those who call all day long and harass women. Blocking is charged and no action is ever taken against those culprits. This is just a move to put further pressure on the mobile companies to "pay up". This is the craziest thing iv ever heard!
hey i guess thats use less ......if some one wants to do vulgarity he could do with out night package as well
been there and witnessed the damage it does to immature teenager minds ! i Appreciate the PTA move.
Great Job PTA.. Atleast someone has eyes opened :)
@KSB: be Forever Alone Like a Boss!
Another move against the Telecom companies. hmm, something's fishy.
To everyone rejoicing this great step in "morality" ... all this step does is make the calls you were making for cheaper rates in the night more expensive.. it neither stops the calls from happening nor from any perceived "immorality"
This nation specializes in shooting itself in the foot and congratulating themselves on it. Well, great! Pay more now.
Why not petition PTA now to listen into calls you make as well, so that they can punish you for any immorality you discuss over the phone? Or better yet.. lets just shut down telecom. I'm sure you'll all become better muslims then.
Viber !! The next big thing Lol
Highly appreciated! Well done PTA! Keeping morality aside, they were making our nation less productive. Thank you PTA!
Morality means 1. The quality of being in accord with standards of right or good conduct.
“not in line with the moral values of the society”! Are you kidding me ? Ban all the Pakistani movies than please. Also throw television dramas for the immoral attire of certain actresses. Ban people who stare at women like crazy cause that is immoral as well.
Who are you to decide what is moral and what is not? Are we going to have laws on morality now as well? We don't exactly practice any other laws so why should we follow these rules ?
We are a nation of hypocrites
Night packages Banned - but what about the day packages? :)
This order should have been placed earlier. Good decision!
Why has PTA become an authority on moral policing ? Let the private sector do its job ! They wouldnt offer such packages if there was no demand, its obvious that our public wants such late night packages !
A good decision by the PTA needs to be applauded. However, there are many other areas which need proper attention by the regulator, i.e. closure of benami SIMs, SIMs issued on impersonation basis etc. There are a lot of SIMs issued on the CNIC of people not belonging to them but PTA has not played its due role to block all these SIMs, but advising people to go themselves to outlets of mobile companies and get those numbers blocked issued on their CNICs, but not belonging to them. I myself requested many times PTA (with documentary evidence) to block a number which is issued on my CNIC fraudently, but PTA did not take any action in this regard and always insisted to go the outlet of that company for blockade of that number. Whether it is the role of a regulator?
A step in right direction.
This is unbelievable, the PTA does not have authority to pre-emptively act against presumed "immorality". In the first instance, teenagers talking on telephones is not immorality. In the second instance, even if "immorality" is involved, the PTA does not have the mandate to prevent people from free speech. For that matter, neither should the supreme court have any authority to decide what people talk about among themselves.
The night-packages offered by the telcos are obviously motivated by the bottomline of making a profit, and if they find that such low call rates at a certain point are profitable the regulatory authority can not ban such packages on such flimsy grounds as our "culture".
In Pakistan the whole notion of freedom of thought and freedom of speech seems lost when state actors like judges and generals deem it their right to demand that citizens not send text messages making jokes about them. These actors should realize that respect is earned, not forced, and that no one is a holy cow above criticism or ridicule. At least the politicians take criticism in stride, they know that's part of the job.
In short, supreme court and other institutions, stop meddling in what people want to say to each other and how they say it. Don't make foolish moves like banning youtube or facebook, grow up and either ignore criticism of yourself and your beliefs, or else counter it with logical arguments. And don't make Pakistan a place where not only is there no freedom of speech for citizens, there is no freedom of legitimate business for firms. No-one wants to invest in our country as it is, and we have only so much land left to sell the to the oil shieks.
Who appointed PTA as an authority to police Pakistani morality?? PTA's mandate is to protect the consumers of telecom products. In no way does it allow PTA to pass judgement on the social impact of late-night packages... incidentally they never mention exactly HOW late night packages are so contrary to Pakistani norms. Honestly it sounds like the PTA was feeling ignored, and decided to kick up a fuss to establish their relevance again. I just wish they had done it on a matter that wasn't so incredibly stupid.
It is actually quite evident that this move by the PTA is not one for the benefit of the consumers, but for the betterment of the PTA and to extract funds from the telcos. Perhaps a better word for their actions is "blackmail"?
If wasting time and money trying to impose a nonsense type of morality is what PTA is all about, i believe it has proven its utter irrelevance and ought to be disbanded immediately.
What nonsense mullah agenda is this? So now PTA is taking on moral policing of people's personal phone calls? Pakistan is getting more and more suffocating by the day.
And now PTA turns into moral police..
Good move, should have been done long ago.
who cares. i will be forever alone
What a joke, the very fact that late night packages are so popular is proof that "social norms" have evolved in Pakistan and that such packages are more than acceptable.
Better late than never, these packages have already caused much damage in our society, many families have been ruined & many curse these service providers.
Service providers earn more money and sensitive/weak souls slip & end up taking steps that could've been avoided had that service not existed. Their target was always the younger not-so-mature, studying and jobless teenage population as shown in the ads. SHUKAR !
At least i will go to office in morning on time now. :)
Nice step. To protect our immature students wasting time. our society is passing through change after coming into contact with developed world. such steps must not be taken as ban on expression. In this transition period little check is needed otherwise we will destroy our generation.Developed world also have laws for younger generation.
so whats the alternate for the sleepless peoples:)
No Problem. They will get releif very soon, in the pretext of "public interest".
Great step, well done PTA! Relations are becoming stagnant due to excessive & unnecessary communications even with our closest ones!
Thank god! A very good decision. This was to be done long time ago.
Good Decision.
PTA did good job. Well done
“not in line with the moral values of the society”.
Can someone enlighten me which society they are talking about???
Ridiculous!!!
This solid step taken by PTA now had to be taken very early but this is not too late now.... Very well said and done PTA.Implement your this order sternly and strongly at least now without showing any flexibility or concession for mobile companies.....
regulating the "social norms and values of the country" so what exactly is the difference between the democratic government and the Taliban?