Blocking access: PHC orders show-cause notices to companies issuing illegal SIMs

PTA to carry out operation against those violating rules.

PESHAWAR:

Strict action has been ordered against businesses involved in providing illegal SIMs in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) by the Peshawar High Court (PHC). Directives were issued during a suo motu notice hearing on the availability of unverified and unregistered SIMs on Tuesday.

Cleaning up

Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), federal and provincial home ministries, and Federal Investigation Agency have been ordered to issue show-cause notices to the said businesses and impose heavy penalties. All those involved must be booked, ordered a division bench comprising PHC Chief Justice (CJ) Dost Muhammad Khan and Justice Qaisar Rashid.



Illegal SIMs are available everywhere in the province and are being used by anti-state elements in terrorism across the country, noted the bench. It added PTA officials should carry out an extensive operation against those involved.

The PTA has also been asked to issue show-cause notices to mobile service providers. “If they cannot provide any satisfactory response, the providers should be fined and their branches or franchise be banned from the province,” said the chief justice.

In 2009, the ministries of interior and information technology, the PTA, and National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) devised a plan under which all data related to SIM activation would be maintained by NADRA, shared Director General Enforcement Abdul Samad.

Samad went on to explain these authorities now plan to introduce a biometric system for the registration of new SIMs. The Sindh High Court has already imposed a ban on selling new SIMs in the province, however, Supreme Court placed a stay order on this verdict, he added.

“We do not have any solution if NADRA registers SIMs on bogus NICs,” he said, adding cellular service providers found violating rules have been fined Rs150 million as prescribed by the PTA.

However, the PHC chief justice maintained if the government wants to run things, it has to devise a proper policy. “Illegal SIMs cause destruction in K-P, but those sitting in Islamabad do not even bother to appear before the high court.”

Roaming at a high price?

Justice Khan went on to note illegal SIM cards have cost millions of rupees in tax evasion and could negatively impact the country’s security. The court cannot remain silent on the issue, he added.

Home and Tribal Affairs Secretary Akhtar Ali Shah told the bench the department has carried out seven rounds of meetings with cellular service providers. The country manager of a mobile company has also been send to jail, he said.



A strategy is being chalked out with police and other law enforcement and intelligence agencies to bring the issue of illegal SIMs under control, added Shah.

One million Afghans use unregistered yet functional SIMs in the province, stated the PHC chief justice. He ordered an investigation into the use of Afghan SIM cards in Pakistan. The bench then directed Secretary Telecommunication and PTA to inquire which company has authorised the use of Afghan SIMs in Pakistan.

On September 13, the PHC took sou motu notice, during the hearing of a criminal case, of the sale of unregistered SIM cards in the country, particularly in K-P. It had directed PTA chairman, chief executives of telcos, attorney general of Pakistan and K-P government officials to submit a report.

“Any foreigner living in the country can easily buy a SIM from a shop without the required paperwork,” CJ Khan had noted then.

“However, anyone living in other countries has to go through several procedures to obtain a SIM card. Neither the PTA nor the federal government has given any attention to this issue.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 25^th, 2013.