Summary Chairman PTA says Illegal Afghan SIMs are used in terrorism other crimes.
ISLAMABAD (Online) - In order to reduce terrorism through illegal SIMs, the government is likely to end international roaming relations with Afghanistan and Home Secretary Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has written a letter to the federal government in this regard.
Acting chairman Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) Dr Ismail Shah stated this during the meeting of the Senate standing committee on Information technology that held under the chair of Senator Muhammad Idrees Safi here on Wednesday.
Dr Ismail said that we have roaming relations with different countries of the world and consumers before travelling in those countries activate the roaming service and same no remains active in the other countries of the world.
Same is phenomena with Afghanistan and terrorist takes advantages of it and used mobile no’s from Afghanistan and our tribal belt in terror incidents. To stop such activities government is considering to review its roaming relations with Afghanistan. He clarified that Pakistan has not roaming relations with India.
Commenting about the auction of 3G technology in the country, Dr Ismail Shah said that the ministry of Information technology has devised a new directive and in a meeting that will be held today (Thursday) PTA and the ministry will discuss the directive.
However, PTA will give its input over the directive, chairman added. He assured the committee that PTA will evolve best strategy regarding auction process of 3G.
Senator Osman Saifullah said that auction process should be transparent and our major agenda should be to bring more revenue for the country. He said that the ministry should adopt a procedure where more bidders should be for less licences.
Commenting about initiatives to control grey trafficking in the country, the state minister for Information technology Ms Anusha Rehman said that it was the duty of PTA however the regulatory body was not completed therefore the ministry took the task to curb grey trafficking in the country.
In past there was nothing to establish that how many telephonic traffic is legal and how much illegal. Anusha said that now state of the art system has been provided to the PTA to control the menace of grey trafficking. Through this system all the old URL will be revisited and will be clarified which one is legal?
She said that in this regard, PTA will start a public awareness campaign to inform the public how they can play their role to stop grey trafficking.
