07 January 2005	Friday	25 Ziqa'ad 1425

ISLAMABAD, Jan 6: The government has evolved a strategy to check issuance of 'benami' cellular phone connections to avoid their misuse by terrorists and criminals.

This was decided at a meeting held at the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra) headquarters here on Thursday.

The meeting, presided over by Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Sherpao, asked the Pakistan Telecommunication Company (PTCL) and all other private mobile phone companies not to issue a connection without the applicant's data verification by Nadra. The decision would come into force from February.

The meeting was called to devise and strategy to implement the decision taken by the 10th law and order conference held in Lahore in December last year. The minister said Nadra would act as a facilitator to counter the misuse of cell phones.

The meeting discussed the issue of telephone connections, particularly cell phones sold or distributed by cell phone companies to the people with fictitious addresses. The meeting was also attended by chairmen Nadra, PTCL, PTA, provincial home secretaries, director-general of National Crisis Management Cell and representatives of mobile companies.

The interior minister lauded the Nadra for carrying out commendable technological task and asked institutions to avail the its services. "There is a need to pin point individuals involved in criminal and terrorist activities through a reliable dataware house.

The system will provide facility of online verification of all documents," he said. He said the authority had come up with unique solution that caters to wide array of users and administrators.

Nadra chairman Brig (retired) Saleem Ahmed Moeen during his briefing to the minister said the problems relating to provision of fake credentials demand high class of security check and accuracy in the data registration because without correct information no one could check such credentials.

"Nadra's authentic database is being used by over 210 swift registration centres working throughout the country and numbers of NSRC are increasing day by day," he said.

All heads of telecom companies appreciated the efforts of Nadra and thanked for providing the fast track facility to their applicants for obtaining computerised identity cards particularly in remote areas.