ISLAMABAD, July 17: Fearing leakage of information, the federal government has directed all its divisions and ministries to stop using cellular phones during official meetings.

Accepting the wide-ranging benefits of the cellphones, the cabinet division’s National Telecom and Information Technology Security Board (NTISB) cautioned that the same could be used for dubious purposes if not handled carefully by senior officials.

Over a decade or so, the board underlined, this rapidly increasing technology had brought into use multiple features which included data storage, voice and SMS chatting, e-business and banking management, faster broadband applications and many other social and global internet applications.

And the facility is under use of not only common people, but also government officials and statesmen.

The board called the use of cellphone as double edge weapon, with sophisticated communication tools, which could be put to use both for positive and negative purposes. The board, in the letter has given a number of justifications, which it said, warranted careful use of cellphone in government offices by the officials. Most of mobile phones have inbuilt camera facility with higher resolution imaging system for both photo and video recording which cannot only be disfigured for any possible blackmailing and defaming, but also be used for recording of sensitive documents or data and hence may result in serious security lapses and consequences.