Grey trafficking is one of the major issues for telecom operators as approximately 400 million minutes of illegal calls are made every month from Pakistan to other countries, which is causing million of dollars loss to the national exchequer, it is learnt.
Official sources told Business Recorder on Thursday that vigilance cell of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) had started working formally to monitor grey trafficking, which had resulted in controlling the menace considerably. "Grey trafficking should be controlled at the earliest and those allegedly involved must be brought to book," said Anusha Rehman, State Minister for Information Technology and Telecom, while chairing a follow-up meeting regarding monitoring of grey trafficking here on Thursday.
The meeting was attended by Akhlaq A Tarrar Secretary IT, Azmat Ranjha Additional Secretary IT, Dr Ismail Shah Acting Chairman PTA and representatives of law enforcement institutions to discuss the counter strategy regarding grey trafficking as well as the respective role of all the stakeholders.
The state minister acknowledged the fact that grey traffic had started decreasing considerably due to the continuous efforts of PTA and FIA under the umbrella of ministry, but stressed on taking measures for its further control at the earliest. During the meeting the participants were given a detailed briefing on grey trafficking whereby it was endorsed by all that there was a dire need of checking the menace.
It was mutually agreed and fully endorsed by all the stakeholders that with the help of a comprehensive plan of action, there would be substantial decrease in the quantum of grey trafficking in coming four weeks. Moreover, it was also reiterated that all the culprits allegedly involved in the phenomenon must be brought to book. It is worth mentioning here that the Ministry of Information Technology and Telecommunications had issued a policy directive last year to establish the International Clearing House (ICH) Exchange for international incoming calls for Long Distance International, Fixed-Line Local Loop, Wireless Local Loop and Mobile Operators.
In furtherance to the Ministry's directive a committee was constituted by the Federal Investigation Agency to function in co-ordination with the PTA to curb nuisance of grey traffic. Accordingly, in the month of May, this year, a separate committee was constituted with the mandate of investigation and detections of illegal set-ups, planning of raid actions and follow-up of the cases, comprising officers from both of the agencies ie the PTA and the FIA. The recent raid and seizure of illegal exchange by the joint team of FIA and PTA was a result of the initiative taken by the IT Ministry.
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