Cellphone crimes: Courts issues notices in petition against unverified SIMs

PTA issued a notice in 2009 directing all cellular networks to check subscribers’ identities.

KARACHI: The high court has issued notices to the telecom ministry and other respondents to file their comments on the verification of SIM cards.

On Wednesday, the Sindh High Court issued notices to the telecom ministry secretary, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) chairman, the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) and a foreign cell phone network to file their replies as to what extent the regulations have been implemented.

The PTA regulations issued on January 30, 2009, and April 21, 2009, directed all cellular networks in Pakistan to ensure the authenticity of their subscribers’ computerised national identity cards through Nadra before activating new connections, said the petitioner, Syed Abbas Haider Rizvi, of the Eaglet Welfare Foundation.

The companies were required to send the Customer Services Agreement Form directly from their call centres to the PTA for establishing the authenticity of the customers’ CNICs through Nadra.

However, a China-based firm operating in the country was not following the new terms and procedures to avoid the fee charged by Nadra to verify the CNICs, alleged the petitioner’s lawyer, Pardeep Kumar.



The private company had “intentionally violated” the regulations but the telecom regulatory authority had also failed to implement the laws, he added.

“The company has also caused losses worth millions of rupees to Nadra by intentionally avoiding the verification process,” the petitioner stated.

The lawyer appealed to the court to direct the PTA to strictly implement the rules for issuing new SIMs and also recover the amount payable by the foreign company to Nadra.

After the preliminary hearing, Chief Justice Mushir Alam, who was heading the division bench, issued notices to the respondents. The court told the deputy attorney general to file their respective comments by the next hearing that would be fixed later.

In 2009, the PTA decided to block all unregistered SIMs after verification from Nadra to control the growing number of criminal activities committed through mobile phone-controlled devices.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 22^nd, 2012.