By IANS,
Islamabad : In a massive crackdown against the use of mobile phones in terrorist activities, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has blocked 10.2 million SIM cards due to non-verification of the identity of their users.
The record of more than 78 million SIM cards have been verified while 10.2 million SIMs have been blocked due to none verification of the data, PTA officials said in a meeting with Senate Standing Committee (SSC).
They said all unregisterd SIMs which were being used for terrorist activities have been deactivated and the mobile phone companies have been asked to set up a call centre like complaint centre to help police and other investigation agencies, Online news agency reported.
During the meeting Thursday, it was also recommended that police should be allowed to get access to consumer data and a legislation should be brought to prevent crimes through mobile or land line phones.
Police face many hurdles in taking action against miscreants as the mobile phone companies refuse to give access to the data of their customers, said Inspector General (IG) of Islamabad, Syed Kalim Imam, who also attended the meeting.
The PTA officials also informed the committee about a new system under which the SIM cards will be activated only after verification of identity of the applicants.