PESHAWAR: The high court on Tuesday summoned the provincial additional chief secretary (home) for responding to petitions challenging ‘persistent and blanket’ disruption of mobile network signals within and around the premises of the high court, Judicial Complex, due to installation of jammers in the nearby Peshawar Central Prison.

A bench consisting of Justice Wiqar Ahmad and Justice Inamullah Khan directed the provincial government and National Radio and Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) to submit reports about steps taken for addressing the issue.

It also directed the NRTC to point out whether any department has not been cooperating in resolving the “persistent problem”.

The bench was hearing multiple petitions filed by the PHC Bar Association and lawyers Hilal Khan and Suleman Shah, claiming that installation of signal jammers at the Peshawar Central Prison had caused disruption of telecommunication signals in nearby areas and premises, including that of the high court, Judicial Complex and others.

Petitioners insist jammers in Peshawar jail affecting signals in courts

PHCBA president Aminur Rehman Yousafzai said that the jammers installed in the central prison had badly disrupted telecommunication signals on courts’ premises for over a year resulting in multiple problems for the lawyers, courts officials and litigants.

He said that the respondents had assured the court around nine months ago that the issue would be resolved and the effect of the jammers would be reduced to a considerable short distance.

Yousafzai, however, said that the issue persisted, badly affecting the day-to-day affairs in the courts. Peshawar Bar Association president Qaiser Zaman complained that the issue had badly disrupted the functions of lawyers on the court premises but the respondents remained unmoved.

He said that the issue was not only confined to courts and instead, nearby residential areas had also been affected. Ali Gohar Durrani, lawyer for one of the petitioners, said that normally, the signals were restored after 4pm.

The bench observed that if the frequency of the jammers was reduced or utilised at appropriate time, the issue could be resolved.

Counsel for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Jehanzeb Mehsud pointed out that although the authority was a respondent in the matter, it was not related to it. He said that the jammers were installed by the NRTC after an agreement with the KP government.

Last year, the then ACS (home and tribal affairs), Mohammad Abid Majeed, informed the court that a “significant number of high-risk and high-profile” criminals, including convicts affiliated with proscribed organisations, had been confined in the province’s main central prisons in Peshawar, Mardan and Haripur.

He had also said that despite strict security protocols, some of those inmates managed to gain unauthorised access to mobile phones, which were allegedly used to establish contacts with their associates outside the jail for carrying out or facilitating unlawful and potentially dangerous activities.

Mr Majeed informed the court that in order to cut communication links of such inmates, the home and tribal affairs department had to make an agreement with NRTC to install signal jammers on the jail premises, which might have inadvertently caused disruption to telecommunication signals in the adjoining areas, including Judicial Complex.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2026