ISLAMABAD: The government defended on Friday the blocking of millions of unverified mobile phone SIM cards, saying that it was a long-standing demand of the law-enforcement agencies.

Responding to a calling-attention notice by Senator Kulsoom Parveen about the problems faced by the general public in biometric verification of their SIMs and the blockage of millions of unverified SIMs, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman said the exercise had been mandated by the National Action Plan (NAP) and was not in violation of any law.

“There should be a sentiment of gratitude rather than annoyance,” she remarked

She said the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority had started work on verification in January on the directions of the Interior Ministry and completed it on April 12. Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines were prepared in consultation with all stakeholders, including cellular companies and law-enforcement agencies. She said all political parties were also consulted before finalising NAP.

She said 77,000 biometric machines were installed across the country and any severe action was avoided. She said a media campaign was also launched by the PTA to raise awareness among the people about their responsibility to get their SIMs verified.

Raza Rabbani refers matter of ‘breach of Senate privilege’ to house rules committee

Ms Rehman said that hundreds of thousands of the blocked SIMs were dormant. She said the blockage of unverified SIMs would not only help law enforcers fighting terrorism, but would also reduce grey traffic.

She said the SIMs that were blocked had not been blocked permanently and could be unblocked anytime after biometric verification.

BREACH OF DECORUM: Earlier, Senate Chairman Mian Raza Rabbani took exception to a letter written to the Senate by a section officer from the Cabinet Division, seeking postponement of business relating to his department because of the third meeting of Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) cabinet secretaries. He said another letter written by the same officer was even more derogatory.

Observing that a section officer cannot write to the Senate, Mr Rabbani said: “I will not tolerate such language and references made to the Senate of Pakistan.”

He referred the matter pertaining to the two letters to the special committee of the house on Rules and Privileges.

Minutes after referring the matter to the house committee, Mr Rabbani noted that the Senate was neither unreasonable nor on a witch-hunt. “We also appreciate the good things,” he said before pointing out that as many as 22 officers of grade 19 and above from various ministries were present in the galleries and appreciated them.

Federal Minister for Commerce Engineer Khurram Dastgir Khan who recently visited Afghanistan and held meetings with top Afghan authorities, including President Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah, apprised the house of his discussions with Afghan authorities.

He said the two countries were moving from hostility and suspicion to facilitation and cooperation. The present economic engagement, he noted, gave a new hope of shared growth and prosperity of both nations.

The minister apprised that since President Ghani’s visit to Islamabad, the government had implemented various decisions to facilitate transit trade.

He said these included allowing system-based partial shipment of Afghan transit goods instead of manual processing, reduction in scanning of Afghan transit cargo from 100 per cent to 20pc and allowing Afghan trucks to carry goods up to Wagah and on their way back, they can carry Pakistani goods for exports to Afghanistan.

He said the Afghan president promised multiple entry visas for businessmen on a reciprocal basis. He said there was a vision for Pak-Afghan motorway, besides a rail-link between the two countries.

The house will meet again on Monday at 3pm.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2015

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