The Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) on Thursday suspended its decision to block unregistered mobile phones after October 20.

The decision to suspend the blockage of unregistered phones was made after the Senate Standing Committee on Information Technology, in a meeting today, suggested that an awareness campaign be launched to educate the public about the implications of the move.

A press release from PTA, while announcing that the deadline had been extended, said that the measure has been taken due to "requests from mobile device consumers and stakeholders, and to create further awareness [about the blockage of unregistered mobile phones] for the general public".

Earlier this week, PTA had announced that all unregistered mobile phones will become unusable after Oct 20 after its long-anticipated Device Identification, Registration and Blocking System (DIRBS) becomes functional. DIRBS is an indigenous solution aimed to combat the use of smuggled or counterfeit sets which either serve to reduce tax revenues for the state or pose health problems to unsuspecting consumers.

In today's meeting, PTA had proposed to extend the deadline by two months. However, it later told the committee that the Ministry of Information and Technology will make the final decision on the new date for the blockage of unregistered mobile phones.

PTA had decided to suspend its decision to block all unregistered mobile phones on Oct 20 after the standing committee expressed its reservations on the plan and pointed out that there was a lack of awareness among people, which was creating panic.

The committee, during a meeting today, asked PTA Chairman Mohammad Naveed and Director Talib Dogar — who had appeared before the members — if they had forensic data of stolen mobile phones. The PTA chairman told members that stolen mobile devices can be traced through their International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number and that the authority would block all non-compliant devices.

The committee responded that there were multiple devices that were registered on the same IMEI number and blocking all of them would affect many people. The PTA officials argued that unregistered mobile phones, including ones with duplicate IMEIs, create problems for security agencies as they make it harder for them to trace stolen devices.