0
KARACHI, Sep 28: Cellular phone companies’ claim to have blocked seven million unregistered connections has not helped the local police who, during the course of investigations, continue to find themselves helpless in locating criminals since personal details submitted to cell-phone service providers usually prove to be falsified.
Senior officials and investigators dealing with several criminal cases argue that their problems in terms of unregistered cell-phone connections have not come to an end, even though cellular phone companies have, on the directives of the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior, traced and blocked some seven million subscriber identity modules (SIMs) whose data proved unverified.
“In a few recent cases of kidnapping, we checked dozens of cell phone numbers and followed the personal details of the people in whose names these connections were registered,” said Sharfuddin Memon, chairman of the Citizen-Police Liaison Committee. “We did not find the criminals, and neither could we guess at their whereabouts since the personal details with the cellular phone companies referred to innocent people who did not apply for the connections under suspicion and who enjoy separate and legitimate service.”
Following directives issued by the federal authorities, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) asked cellular companies to block some seven million SIMs last month, since the Senate’s Standing Committee on Interior found that there were serious violations of the rules designed by the telecommunications watchdog and the cellular phone companies. These violations were creating impediments in the path of the law enforcement agencies. However, the measures taken so far have not brought any positive change for investigators, who argue that the service providers are still not following the rules in terms of registering new subscribers.
“We have not yet witnessed the benefits of this step of blocking SIMs,” said Capital City Police Officer Wasim Ahmed. “The situation on the ground has not changed and during the course of our investigations, we have learned that the sale of illegal SIMs is continuing unchecked.” In this situation, he said, the police could not achieve much success since support was needed from the institutions concerned, in this case the cellular phone companies. “In recent kidnapping cases, fake data provided by subscribers has proved the major hurdle in our investigations,” he commented. “We have put these worries before the high-ups and hope that the issue will be addressed, so that our investigations can be more effective and achieve positive results.”
Process is to continue
Acknowledging the concerns expressed by the city police hierarchy, the legislators behind the move of blocking millions of SIMs said that this had been achieved as part of a year-long exercise, which could continue for the next few months in order to streamline the data once and for all.
“There is no doubt that the situation is not ideal,” said Senator Mohammed Talha Mahmood Aryan, chairman of the Standing Committee on Interior, who took the initiative of initiating the process of streamlining cellular subscribers’ data after the complaints from law enforcement agencies mounted up. “We have started the process, and it may take time but will ultimately bring positive results. The SIMs blocked by the companies were sold before Jan 2008 and in a few days. Recently we again to check the data of SIMs sold since then. Any unregistered SIMs will meet the same fate.”
The country has witnessed a phenomenal jump in cellular subscribers since 2004, when two foreign telecom companies launched operations and triggered a competition which led to more than 89 million users of mobile phones services across the country by July 2008. The technology attracted criminals to rely on the services as well as exploit the unchecked sale of connections.
PTA data shows that by July 2008, Mobilink led the market with more than 32.05 million subscribers across the country. It was followed by Ufone, with 18.36 million users. The Norwegian Telenor enjoys a total of 18.32 million subscribers, while 15.77 million people use the services provided by the UAE’s Warid. China Mobiles has attracted more than 4.4 million subscribers so far while Instaphone’s subscriber base has fallen to 321,201, says the PTA data. The authorities, however, say that the rules are violated by almost all companies, which poses serious challenges for law enforcement agencies.
“Cell-phone use has increased sharply in almost every crime, including serious crimes such as kidnapping for ransom and terrorism,” said Mr Memon at the CPLC. “But when we trace the record of a caller using a phone for criminal activity, most of the time the details turn out to be fake.” He suggested a ban on the irregular or unregulated sale of cell-phone connections and asked the PTA to design a policy that bound companies to provide connections at subscribers’ homes. “Another method of putting a check on such irregularities is for the companies to activate a SIM 48 hours after its sale, during which time it should verify the data provided by the subscriber,” added Mr Memon.
He said the CPLC, which facilitated police mainly in investigations of kidnapping for ransom cases, could also play an effective role between the law enforcers and the telecom bodies for an access to cellular data of subscribes to track down the source of criminals’ communication and locate them.
“Being a trusted and respected body, the CPLC can be provided access to cellphone call and SMS data to facilitate our police for investigating criminal cases,” suggested Mr. Memon.
