A meeting was held at prime minister house in Islamabad, where raja pervaiz ashraf prime minister of Pakistan made some serious decisions after discussing it with the CEOs of all major mobile network companies operating in Pakistan. The meeting was attended by some other officials including Dr, basit riaz advisor to prime minster on IT, khawaja siddique Akbar secretary interior, Mr Farooq awan chairman PTA and IT secretary.
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The initiative taken by Pakistan telecommunication authority on 13th November to deliver the SIMs to the people at their CNIC address and new connection should not be sold at the franchise, customer service centers and other outlets has been refused by the prime minister. It was a unanimous decision approved by all the officials attended the meeting. The PTA directives were placed in command in order to avoid the risks of terrorist attacks by devising new policies for the purchasing of SIMs, mobile number portability service and suspension of network connections on the special occasions that are prone to attacks.
Moreover, the officials have agreed upon the installation of biometric systems on all the franchise, outlets and customer service centers in order to verify the identity of the person purchasing the SIM by giving their thumb prints. The selling of SIMs, however, will continue from the dedicated outlets and retail shops after the complete verification of the person through national database and registered authority (NADRA) but for the time being, the selling of SIM is banned until the biometric systems are properly installed and come under use. In addition to thumb print, the image of the SIM user will also be included in the database of the company.
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Other decision was regarding the lifting of ban on MNP service by going through all the positive aspects of the service including high detectably of the user using the service and three months extension of the deadline for permanently blockage of SIMs by the cellular companies. In reply to the decision taken at the meeting, interior minister Rehman malik who implemented the ban said that raja pervaiz ashraf is the prime minister of the country and he has all the right to make changes in the rules in the best interest of the citizens and society. Moreover, he said the 31st December deadline of unregistered block SIMs has been extended by the prime minister so that people will get more time to make their SIM registered.
