Cyber crimes increasing, NA body told; PTA asked to take action against unofficial retailers selling SIM cards

A parliamentary panel was informed on Monday that due to misuse of mobile phone SIMs, the ratio of cyber crimes is increasing in the country as these are allegedly being used in terrorism activities as well.
Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication, Director Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Cyber Crimes Wing revealed that due to poverty, some people sold their SIMs cards at up to Rs 10,000, while SIMs being sold at streets by unofficial retailers were activated easily.
The committee chairman directed Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to take strict action over the aggressive marketing of SIMs selling at streets by unofficial retailers as such practices were resulting in cyber crimes. The committee further directed that to avoid cyber crimes, illegal registration and aggressive selling of SIMs cards should be stopped or lowered.
The seventh meeting of the Standing Committee on Information Technology & Telecommunication was held under the chairmanship of Ali Khan Jadoon. The committee unanimously confirmed the minutes of its previous meeting held on 08-07-2019.
The committee was informed that Facebook and Twitter were not cooperating in data sharing due to absence of agreements. India along with other 53 countries have signed agreements with Twitter and Facebook and the latter extend cooperation in data sharing and other related matters; however, Pakistan has not signed any such agreement with the social media giants.
The committee was further informed that PTA had blocked around one million fake IDs on social media containing hate material. The PTA official said that Twitter had been informed about 246 accounts which were blocked on Kashmir issue.
The FIA briefed the committee over the cyber-crimes, security and objectionable material posted on social media. It was stated that new cyber crime project was commenced in September 2018 at an estimated cost of around Rs 1.128 billion. NOC was also granted for the recruitment of 416 fresh officers on 2 years contract.
The representative from MOITT briefed the committee regarding the National Incubation Centre (NIC) Ignite and gave an overall presentation regarding the awareness programme /milestones which they have conducted/achieved since February 2017.
The NIC representative also invited the committee members to visit the NIC and the chairman committee agreed to it. He said the committee would visit during its session days.
The chair constituted a sub-committee consisting of three members of the committee with Sher Ali Arbab as a convener and Ali Gohar Khan and Muhammad Hashim as its members on the agenda regarding the PTCL employees.
The meeting was attended by MNAs Sahibzada Sibghatullah, Sher Ali Arbab, Javaria Zafar Aheer, Kanwal Shauzab, Nusrat Wahid, Muhammad Hashim, Ali Gohar Khan, Romina Khursheed Alam, Maiza Hameed, Mahesh Kumar Malani, Naz Baloch, and Syed Mehmood Shah.