After Islamabad High Court, Peshawar High Court (PHC) Chief Justice (CJ) Justice Dost Muhammad Khan on Friday took notice of the easy availability of unregistered SIMs in the province.
“Vegetables are difficult to purchase but SIMs can be easily purchased,” the judge said, taking notice of the abundance of illegal mobile phone SIMs.
“The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and federal organizations are not ready to take action against unregistered SIMs,” he said.
The PHC CJ summoned the PTA chairman, chief executive officers of telecommunication companies and chief secretaries to explain the situation.
[two_third]
“Corruption is rampant in Pakistan and there is no law to check the sale and purchase of SIMs,” he said, adding that extortionists used unregistered SIMs to harass people and the authorities concerned did not have any record in this regard.
[/two_third]
[one_third_last]
“Vegetables are difficult to purchase but SIMs can be easily purchased,” Chief Justice, PHC
[/one_third_last]
Law enforcers have repeatedly said that unregistered SIMs were the main tool in the hands of terrorists and criminals across the country, as after using a SIM, the criminals discarded it and bought a new one, which made the arrest of terrorists and criminals a hard task.
The issue of unregistered SIMs has escalated lately after the Interior Minister and then Prime Minister took notice of the situation.
Biometric verification of entire cellular base is considered as an option to eliminate the all unregistered SIMs from the country. However the modalities and procedures to carryout the verification are still being workedout.
