PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Friday directed the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA), National Radio Telecommunication Corporation (NRTC) and Frequency Allocation Board (FAB) to file detailed reports about the installation of mobile phone jammers at the central prison, which disrupted mobile phone signals on the premises of the nearby courts.

A bench comprising Justice Syed Arshad Ali and Justice Mohammad Faheem Wali issued these directives during a hearing into a petition filed by the Peshawar High Court Bar Association against disruption of mobile phone signals and internet service on the courts’ premises, especially Judicial Complex.

It fixed Oct 2 for further hearing into the petition, which sought the court’s orders for respondents, including the home department, inspector general of prisons, PTA and others, to restore full signals and telecommunication traffic on the courts’ premises.

The petition further prayed for the removal of jammers and other equipment interrupting mobile signals on the courts’ premises.

Petition prays for removal of mobile jammers from central prison

A day earlier, additional chief secretary (home and tribal affairs) Mohammad Abid Majeed had 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 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 also 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.

PHCBA president Aminur Rehman Yousafzai, Peshawar Bar Association president Qaiser Zaman and other office-bearers appeared for the petitioner.

Additional advocate general Inam Khan Yousafzai represented the provincial government, whereas PTA zonal director Tariq Khan and representatives of cellular phone companies also turned up.

The petitioner’s lawyers said that they had noticed for the last many months that internet service and mobile phone signals were not available in the high court and district courts.

They said that the representatives of the bar associations when digging out the facts they came to know that a number of jammers had been installed at the Peshawar Central Prison, interrupting telecommunication signals.

They said that despite repeated requests the quarters concerned had not paid heed to resolving the issue.

PTA zonal director Tariq Khan said that the jammers were installed by the NRTC on the prison’s premises in July.

He said the PTA was just a regulator and the jammers were installed by the NRTC.

When the bench wondered if an opinion was sought from the PTA about the jammers’ limits, the official said normally, the limit of signal jammers was 20 metres, but in the current case, jammers with much longer limits had been installed.

“We’d informed officials about the problems emanating from these jammers,” he said.

The bench asked why high-risk prisoners weren’t shifted to other prisons as the Peshawar prison is located in a populated area.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2025