Cellular services to be barred from 10am to 8pm. PHOTO: CREATIVE COMMONS
The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has announced the suspension of mobile phone services in 27 cities and towns of Punjab on the occasion of Eid Miladun Nabi on Friday from 10am to 8pm. Unlike in the past, this time small towns were also included on the list of places where communication will be down.
These cities and towns in Punjab include Lahore, Shaikhapura, Nankana, Sangla Hill, Shangla Hills, Gujranwala, Sialkot, Narowal, Shakar Gard, Zafar Wal, Rawalpindi, Attock, Jehlum, Chakwal, Multan, Rahim Yar Khan, Layyah, Bahawalpur, Jhang, Chiniot.
In Sindh, Karachi, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Larkana, Nausheroferoz and Mirpurkhas would also go off the grid. Sindh Adviser to the Home Ministry Sharfuddin Memon announced that mobile phones would not work from 10am to 5pm in Karachi on Friday as well. There will be no service in Quetta as well.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 25th, 2013.
COMMENTS (11)
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Terrorism is a day job? They only attack between the hours of 9AM - 5PM?
Why not close the TTP, Lej, SSP, ASWJ and Let terrorist centers? These criminals are moving free and teeth less cell phone are closed.
it happens chinmay. it definitely happens. just another thing we have to learn not to rely on... like gas, electricty etc...
@Chinmay Yes, it actually happens and it has happened over a half a dozen time in the past 6 months alone. The only saving grace is that it happens on public holidays so the mobile phone blockage does not interrupt business calls/messages/emails otherwise it is a huge nuisance. What these dinosaurs (who implement the suspension) don't realize is that 'communication' is not used to define idle chit chat with your friends and family anymore, it is used to define how businesses are conducted with emails, file sharing, online collaborations, video conferencing etc. and not just in the IT industry but in virtually any technologically backed industry.
@Mohammad Ali Siddiqui: Suppose your this stance is accepted true then why mobile phones' blocking is only for few days in the year only on the special occasions and why not for the whole year?And if this is so then in Karachi mobile phones' services have to blocked forever/permanently because in Karachi at least 6 to 10 people are killed daily in the target killings and terrorists' attacks.....
Cell phones are people too. They need a day off just like us.
If blocking the mobile phones' services in Pakistan is the one and only way of overcoming terrorism then why not the government at once closes all the mobile phones' companies in Pakistan so that the present unable,incapable and disable government overcome the terrorism and the terrorists' networks in Pakistan most conveniently and effectively instead of blocking the mobile phones' services on the special occasions in Pakistan??????
Can any Pakistani friends tell us if this actually happens... hard to believe... so in all these big cities INCLUDING LAHORE AND KARACHI mobile phones don't work between 10 AM and 8 PM??? Really?
Pak govt should ban music, movies, internet, courts, girls education and impose sharia in the whole country.
Just like the 100 hazara ppl were saved in the twin blasts...u got that right dude...
It is good for maintaining law and order situation in the country. In this way, government save many precious lives of many innocent people who become target of suicide bombers and remote control bombs that are exploded every now and then by the terrorists.