KARACHI: Mobile phone services were restored in the cities on Monday, DawnNews reported.

The services had suspended in Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, Multan and a number of other cities on the eve of Eidul Fitr on the direct orders of the federal government.

Mobile phones in the cities went silent from 8pm onwards on Sunday, which was the peak period for most people to exchange Eid greetings.

Earlier on Sunday, Interior Minister Rehman Malik had said that the action had been taken in view of security concerns of the governments of Punjab and Sindh.

Talking to newsmen, the minister had said that cellphone service would be suspended all over Punjab at the request of the provincial government.

“The Punjab government has requested us to suspend cellphone service in some parts of the province, but we think it should also be made temporarily inoperative in sensitive areas of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh because terrorists usually use mobile phones in their acts of terrorism,” he said.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the minister’s residence to discuss security concerns of Punjab and Sindh.

The minister had also said that the government would take all necessary steps to protect people’s lives.