KARACHI, Nov 21: The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority has failed to compile a directory of mobile phones despite the lapse of eight months.

Well-placed sources told Dawn on Thursday that earlier this year the telecommunications regulator had moved to ask all mobile companies operating in the country to share their data bank with one another and compile a mobile phone directory.

Analysts, however, believe that as the number of mobile phone users in Karachi has become 600,000 or thereabouts — 75 per cent of the number of PTCL subscribers in the city — the telecommunications regulator should now ensure that the mobile companies share information about their subscribers with one another so that a comprehensive mobile phone directory could be prepared.

“The mobile companies should be asked to furnish some basic information about their subscribers, such as their names, addresses and mobile phone numbers.”

The analysts point out that for a mobile phone directory the cellular phone companies would have to procure correct information from their subscribers which might come in handy during a criminal investigation.

Meanwhile, all mobile retailers have been obligated by the provincial government to procure a passport-sized photograph of the person applying for a mobile phone connection. Now a person can obtain a mobile connection only on submitting the photocopy of his national identity card along with the application form.

Police officials say that previously this condition was so lax that most criminals could procure the mobile connection without having valid documents. They point out that mobile phones are increasingly being used by terrorists, extortionists, kidnappers and criminals.

Officials working at the mobile companies confirm that they have been directed to get independent mobile retailers to follow a selling protocol which makes it binding on them to verify the addresses of the applicants so that the retailers could be held responsible if a mobile connection is found to be used in an offence for which one may be punished by law.

A retailer of mobile phones, having an outlet in Clifton, said this condition would make the job of selling mobiles very difficult. “Why make a task difficult when it can be done easily? When law-enforcement agencies fail to discharge their duties properly, they try to put a ban on technology,” he observed.

He, however, agreed that previously a large number of mobile phones had been issued by the four mobile companies on wrong names. “What happens is that a mobile retailer gets such a small share in the issuance of a mobile phone that he cannot spend a lot of time ensuring that a new subscriber furnishes right information and particulars. The moment he makes a deal, he starts thinking about another client. Mobile companies also do not pursue the cases properly.”