Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) has directed the cellular operators to properly document all the credential of customers acquiring mobile connections from the respective mobile companies.
The directives came by the authority here on Friday following Chairman PTA Shahzada Alam Malik meeting with the representatives of cellular mobile operators in which he expressed his concern that operators were not adhering to the laid down procedures while issuing the connections, says an official statement.
"It has been witnessed that proper procedure is not being adopted with regard to acquiring the particulars of the customer intending to have a mobile connection. Authority has also received a number of complaints in this regard," he told the operators.
Chairman PTA directed the representatives of the mobile operators to make sure that a copy of Computerised National Identification Card (CNIC) is demanded from the customer at the time of issuance of SIM besides electronically maintaining the particulars of every subscriber as given in the customer agreement form.
Malik categorically made it clear that this policy would be implemented immediately and strict action would be taken against those franchises that would be found guilty of violating the rules.
He told the representatives of the CMTOs that by the beginning of July, PTA teams would be visiting various franchises of all the cellular mobile operators across the country to check whether proper procedure is being adopted while issuing the respective mobile connections.
Any franchise found to be selling SIM without a copy of CNIC duly incorporating the SIM number being issued, would be immediately sealed and strict action, including cancellation of franchise, would be taken. He further directed the CMTOs to ensure that their connections are sold only through franchises and from places, which are registered with them and display proof of such registration for the benefit of the customers.
With regard to the verification of the leftover cases of antecedents of the already issued SIMs, Chairman PTA urged the CMTOs to co-ordinate the verification process with Nadra. He gave the CMTOs three months time period to finish the verification process. After this, PTA team will visit CMTOs offices to ascertain the implementation of these instructions. He made it clear that any operator not seriously pursuing these directions may be show caused by the authority.
The matter, he said, is of national importance and PTA is ready to join hands with the industry to initiate media campaign educating subscribers and general public at large in this regard.
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