KARACHI, Sept 22: The Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has been asked to draw up a comprehensive standard operating procedure for cellular telephone business in Pakistan that should safeguard the privacy right of the law-abiding subscribers and at the same time effectively curb expansion of un-registered SIMs which are said to be one of the key factors of increase in crime rate.

The necessity of such a procedure has been warranted from a dispute between the law-enforcement agencies, mainly the police and the cellular phone companies and the PTA.

The police, allege the cellular phone companies and PTA, are now frequently demanding, formally and informally, from the cellular companies billing data, subscriber details and other technical details required for “live operations against kidnappers and hard core criminals’’, to quote an official communication.

About a week ago, the Capital City Police Officer formally designated an SSP of anti-violent crime cell in Karachi to obtain all such information, whenever asked.

The cellular companies are understood to have taken a serious notice of this move.

Till recently, only the Inter Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau were the two government agencies that enjoyed the access to data and information from the cellular companies.

“Now with the involvement of police and increasing access to data, privacy and confidentiality become a major issue,’’ contends an executive of one of the seven cellular companies in the country who does not mince words to allege “police in this part of the world are known for high-handedness and their involvement in data and information-sharing puts an additional pressure on us and also on our customers.’’

The moot point of cellular phone is that they were the biggest investor in the country during the last seven or eight years and any impairment of their business confidence would not be good for the country.

“We want to cooperate with the government through PTA, which is a regulatory body,’’ he said.

“It is because of this reason, we want the PTA to draw up a standard operating procedure for the cellular phone business,” replied CCPO Wasim Ahmad.

He recalled that the PTA was asked to do this job at a high-level meeting on Aug 30. But the PTA has, so far, not indicated having started this job.

Cell-phone emerged as a fastest expanding business in Pakistan during the last eight or nine years as the number of subscribers is now in millions.

Police officials say the universal business practice of cellular phone is to have all details of the subscriber before handing over a telephone.

“In many countries, cell-phones are delivered through courier or postal service to ensure address of subscribers,’’ said the CCPO of Karachi.

The PTA first wanted an officer of the rank of DIG to be given authority for seeking such an information from the cell-phone companies.

“We are ready to appoint a DIG for this purpose rather than an SSP,’’ he said.

The PTA should set in place a regulatory framework and should have a well-equipped infra structure to make these companies comply with regulations.